Gender Pay Gap Reporting
In April 2018 UK companies with more than 250 employees were required to report on their gender pay gap. This involved carrying out six calculations that show the difference between the average earnings of men and women in each organisation.
The data below is taken from a snapshot date of 5 April 2018 a year on from the first report uploaded last year which is based on a total of 812 employees.
At Build-A-Bear Workshop, our Mission is to ‘add a little more 
to life.’ As such, our Core Values put people at the heart of what we do. This is one of the reasons Build-A-Bear Workshop had been recognised as The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for the last four consecutive years. We are committed to treating everyone fairly, irrespective of their background, and give opportunities for development based on performance.
The Gender pay analysis results:
20.99% as at 5 April 2018 vs 23.11% for 2017 Mean (Average) gender pay gap
5.75% as at 5 April 2018 vs 16.2% for 2017 Median (Mid-range) gender pay gap
Our parent company’s Board of Directors based in North America has 57% female representation and 43% male representation, and its President and CEO is female.
Our largest proportion of employees are Bear Builders (Sales Assistants) that had a 4% mean gender pay gap. This group of employees accounted for 75% of total headcount. The gender split of Bear Builders stood at 87% female and 13% male consisting of 526 female and 81 males. The median pay gap is (6%) which demonstrates that despite the top earners in the company being male, the mid-point hourly rate for males and females only varies by £0.45.
Pay quartiles:
| Band | Females | Males |
|---|---|---|
| Upper Quartile | 80% | 20% |
| Upper Middle Quartile | 82% | 18% |
| Lower Middle Quartile | 90% | 10% |
| Lower Quartile | 89% | 11% |
The Bear Builders are paid consistently based upon pay ranges which is also determined by location, irrespective of gender. To put the pay quartiles into context, the total headcount across the organisation stood at 85% female and 15% male. Therefore females represented a large proportion of all the pay quartiles.
The Gender Bonus pay analysis results:
The gender split of employees who received a bonus is:
19% of females received a bonus
32% of males received a bonus
The difference in bonus pay:
72% Mean (Average) gender pay gap
43% Median (Mid-range) gender pay gap
The bonus calculation has a large variance in the average, because only certain job roles were eligible for a bonus. However, the calculation needs to be carried out across all employees – irrespective if they received a bonus.
To provide further context, 25% of employees received a bonus, and the 75% of employees that do not receive a bonus are Bear Builders. Bear Builders are the larger proportion of the workforce and they are eligible for alternative incentives, which are; a team recognition fund and an additional day’s pay. In contrast, our head office staff is 65% female and 35% male and nearly all are bonus eligible which significantly impacts the bonus pay calculation.
We are aware our core customer facing employees, Bear Builders, are predominantly female, but this analysis has highlighted the significant variance. We know this pattern is mirrored across the retail industry at large, but specifically is more notable at Build-A-Bear Workshop, as our brand is generally a more attractive place of work for females due to their familiarity with our brand.
Our challenge continues to be encouraging male applicants to join our Bear Builder population and to encourage increased representation of females in leadership roles. The way in which we aim to increase the number of female leaders is by working closely with our female employees on their development plans in order to identify our future leaders.
This whole process is imbedded within our annual performance review programme and we continuously look at ways to balance our representation of males and females across all levels.