Thomas Cook has 'much to do' to address gender pay gap

Tui Airways UK last month confirmed female staff earn, on average, 56.9% less than their male colleagues, with Tui citing a lack of female pilots and others in senior roles.

Cook’s airline is similarly imbalanced, the report found, with 90.8% of the upper pay quartile male and upper middle 46.8% male. By comparison, the lower quartile is 78.3% female and lower middle 72.6% female.

It said the imbalance was partly due to the fact 95% of its pilots are male, where pay frequently exceeds £100,000. By contrast, the majority of lower paid cabin crew roles are held by women.

The airline is split into Cook’s commercial flight operation, comprising management, pilots and cabin crew, and an engineering wing, with men dominating the upper pay quartile across both, 82.4% and 98.3% respectively.

Figures cited by Cook in the report state that across the airline aviation industry, just 25% of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates are female, dropping to 14% in engineering and technology.

However, the firm says it has increased its number of active female pilots by 50%.

Cook pilot Victoria McCarthy said while day-to-day duties, training, promotion opportunities and pay were “very transparent and equal” between male and female pilots, the biggest challenge was the “uptake” of women.

“I believe greater encouragement and awareness of the role is needed among younger women to show them how great this job can be.”

Cook’s initiatives to address the imbalance include gender-balanced shortlists for hiring managers and gender-balanced job descriptions, introducing gender diversity targets for appointments to its executive committee, creating a forum for senior female leaders and launching a new partnership with Flight Training Europe in Jerez to attract more female pilots through a sponsorship programme.

Rachael Gillett, Cook’s group and UK HR director, said: “What’s clear from this report is we need to increase the number of women in senior positions. While we have made progress in recent years, there is some way to go.

“We are focused on this issue at the highest level of the organisation... not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because we recognise it will help us to build a better business for our colleagues and our customers.”