Warner Bros., Sony, Turner Report Sizeable Gender Pay Gaps in U.K.

Taking into account bonuses, the gap between men and women rose to as much as 67.3 percent.


Time Warner's Warner Bros. and Turner units, as well as Sony on Wednesday revealed considerable pay gaps between their male and female employees across their U.K. operations.


For Warner Bros., men on average made 30.9 percent more than women in 2017, while this rose to a 67.3 percent taking into account bonuses. At Columbia Pictures Corp, which looks after Sony's U.K.-based film and TV units, the figures were 23.5 percent in favor of men, rising to 45.8 percent including bonuses. Turner, meanwhile, reported a pay gap of 30.2 percent and bonus gap of 66.1 percent.


According to new regulations that came into place in 2017, all companies in the U.K. with more than 250 staff must submit gender pay reports. Warner Bros., Sony and Turner were among the last to file their reports before the Wednesday deadline set by the British government.


All three companies argued that their figures reflected the fact that more men were employed in top-earning positions, but stressed that work was being done to change that. Columbia said that, between February 2017 and February 2018, 61 percent of its promotions into senior roles had gone to women, while both Warner Bros. and Turner pointed to initiatives aimed at helping women reach more senior roles.


The national average pay gap across the U.K. is 14 percent, with the BBC – at the center of a scandal over wage inequality – last year reported a gap of 9 percent, lower than Sky (11.5 percent), ITV (16.4 percent) and Channel 4 (28.6 percent). Viacom last week bucked the trend with a 2.8 percent reported gap, rising to 33 percent taking into account bonuses.