Compass Group UK publishes its first ethnicity pay gap report

Compass Group UK, the UK’s largest food and support services company, has published its first ethnicity pay gap report, as part of a combined gender and ethnic minority pay gap report.

The negative ethnicity median pay gap of -7.9% reflected a higher representation of ethnic minorities working in locations and roles which are paid higher wages. Its median gender pay gap continued to reduce, from 16.6% to 12.6%, lower than the UK national average of 14.9%.

Compass employs approximately 45,000 people across the UK and the report covered all UK entities. The company has set a target to be representative of society at all levels of the organisation, from a gender, ethnicity and socio-economic perspective, by 2030.

The company has put in place a roadmap to help achieve greater equality and improve representation, including providing employees with development tools and progression opportunities, supporting the communities in which it works, helping the next generation and advocating fairer pay for all.

The business has also invested in D&I programmes, development of talent and enhanced training, mentoring and apprenticeship programmes, graduate schemes and further support for career progression. 29% of Compass’ graduates come from minority backgrounds as well as 20% of its apprentices.

Meanwhile, representation of women at management levels has increased by 7% since 2019. Compass said its current cohort of graduates was 73% female and more than 50% of apprentices were female, including its culinary apprentices.

The median bonus gap dropped by three quarters from 29.4% to 7.1%.

Robin Mills, managing director, Compass Group UK & Ireland said: “Publishing our first ethnicity pay gap report is a positive first step. Transparency and accountability are essential as we seek to increase our representation among our senior management in relation to ethnicity and gender. We are really encouraged by the insights from our first set of ethnicity pay gap data and look forward to measuring our progress going forward. We are also pleased to see the progress we have made in relation to our gender pay and female representation in our senior management teams.

“We are very clear on the actions we need to take to keep increasing representation in relation to ethnicity, gender and socio-economic backgrounds at all levels of our business. We are passionate about providing opportunities for everybody and the food and services industry is ideally placed for people to have fulfilling careers, whatever their background. This report provides a good foundation for us to continue to build upon.”