News

Merseyrail has today released details of its gender pay gap which shows an average difference of 9% between the salaries earned by men and women; half the UK average of 18.4%.

The report identifies a smaller percentage of females in higher paid roles within general management, train driving and engineering as the main reason for the pay gap at Merseyrail.

The rail industry has historically been male-dominated, particularly in higher paid roles; of the top 25% of salaried roles at Merseyrail, 12% are occupied by women. This is particularly true in operational positions, for example 7% of drivers are female.

Jane English, Human Resources Director at Merseyrail said:

“The primary factor in this pay gap is the under-representation of women in some of our managerial and operational roles and we are actively addressing what the barriers are for females progressing to those roles. This report has given us a good opportunity to take necessary steps to encourage our talented female workforce to consider a career in some of the higher paid roles and promote the development opportunities which are available to all our staff.

It’s important for us to acknowledge that 45% of our senior management team are women and we need to look at how this better gender balance was achieved and apply it to other areas of our business.”

Merseyrail is confident that women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across the business; particularly as many salaries are agreed with the three recognised trade unions that represent many staff.

The full report is available here.