Curtis Holt Ltd Gender Pay Gap Report 2023 (Snap Shot Date 5th April 2023)

Curtis Holt Ltd is an employer with more than 250 members of staff. As such it is required by the Government to provide details of the difference between the hourly rates of pay and bonuses paid to male and female members of staff.

Curtis Holt Ltd is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We always seek to ensure that our remuneration policy considers only the responsibilities, skillsets, experience, performance, and commitment of those undertaking work on our behalf.

The information gained from initiatives such as the Equality Act has helped us ensure that any anomalies are identified and addressed through our salary review process.

Gender Pay Gap

The Office of National Statistics provisionally reports the pay gap across both full time and part time employees in the UK as 14.3% for 2023 which is a slight reduction on the 2022 figure of 14.4%. The Equality Act sets out clear mechanics by which the Gender Pay Gap should be measured by organisations and the figures shown below have been calculated in accordance with those guidelines.

The figures for Hourly Pay (salary plus bonus and other allowances) are for employees employed, as at the ‘snapshot date’ of 5th April 2023 and paid their usual full basic pay during the period that includes the snapshot date, with the Bonus calculations being based on information for the twelve months preceding that date.

Hourly Pay Rates

The mean (average) hourly rate paid to male Curtis Holt Ltd employees is 11.4% more than the mean hourly rate paid to female Curtis Holt Ltd employees. The median (middle) hourly rate paid to male Curtis Holt Ltd employees is 5.2% more than the median hourly rate for female Curtis Holt Ltd employees. In line with the regulations, we are required to identify the percentage of male and female employees within each of the pay level quartiles in our workforce. The percentage of male and female employees within each of the pay level quartiles in our workforce, as at 5th April 2023, is shown below. Overall, the number of female employees has reduced slightly as at the snapshot date with 18.7% of all employees being female. This is a decrease of 3.6% or 0.7 percentage points compared to 2022.

Some of the factors which influence these figures might be:

• Historically the wholesale tool trade has been a male dominated industry and over the years we have received relatively few female applications for senior management and sales positions. We are also lucky to employ many long-serving members of staff with well over one third of Curtis Holt Ltd employees having more than fifteen years’ service, which means that new promotion opportunities emerge less frequently than might be the case in some other businesses.

• A number of our female employees have taken breaks from work and many of those who have returned to work have sought part-time rather than full-time positions.

Bonus Gap

1.   The mean (average) total bonuses paid to male employees was 39.9% higher than those paid to female employees.

2.   The median (middle) total bonuses paid to male employees was 8.9% higher than those paid to female employees.

3.   Bonuses were paid to 98.2% of male employees and 989% of female employees.

When studying the bonus gap information, it should be noted that:

• For reasons covered earlier, most of our senior management positions are held by men.

• Our sales force is predominantly male, and a large percentage of their remuneration is commission based which, under the regulations, is recorded as bonus.

• Most of our part-time employees are female and, like all part-time employees, would receive pro-rata bonus payments. The required calculation for bonus reporting, unlike the hourly rate, takes no account of such issues.

Action Plan

As covered earlier, the requirement to produce this information has helped us to focus on making sure that there are no gender related issues at work within our pay structures. The Company is continuously committed to its training programmes, ensuring our female colleagues have equal opportunities and access to development training.

In addition, in July 2023 we rolled out a self-service e-recruitment system that has enabled us to advertise vacancies internally, so all employees are aware of opportunities when they arise. We are also using this system to monitor female applications and their progression through the recruitment process. All candidates whether successful or not are now also being surveyed to obtain feedback.

We will continually review our Company policies and benefits that may help support female employees when deciding whether to stay with the Company and/or whether to apply for new roles, in addition to attracting more female employees into the organisation.

In addition to the above, in early 2024 the Company will undertake an employee engagement survey and will use the data, to obtain a better understanding of the views of our female employees. As a follow up, we will also conduct female only face to face workshops which should provide valuable feedback on possible issues preventing career progression. The Company will then consider whether adjustments can be made to job roles to remove potential barriers for female applicants.

It is my belief that the information contained within this report is correct, and that the data has been accurately calculated, in accordance with The Equality Act 2010 reporting guidelines.

Wayne Flory

Director