Keltbray announces gender pay gap figures

The company, based in Surrey, south east England, which employs more than 2,000 staff and whose services include demolition, remediation and piling, said that men in its employment on average received 28.62% more in hourly pay than women in 2022.

Keltbray CEO Darren James said the company is commited to its inclusion and diversity agenda. (Photo: Keltbray)

Moreover, the company said the gap between men’s and women’s earnings had risen from a mean gender pay gap of 28.11% in 2021 and 25.73% in 2020.

The company calculated that its median gender pay gap in hourly pay increased more significantly from 22.19% in 2021 to 25.37% in 2022.

Keltbray said that the increase in the pay gap between men’s and women’s earnings in 2022 came as a result of the company’s acquisition of the 138-strong high voltage power engineering business IDEC Group in November 2022 and its deal with administrator Grant Thornton to acquire a portfolio of infrastructure assets from utilities specialist NMCN along with 117 staff.

The company reported that women made up less than 10% of employees in its top pay quartile but more than 30% of those in the lowest pay quartile.

Keltbray said it would be “working over the next three years to advance our ambitions in closing the gap in these two new business units while driving greater gender pay equality across all our operations.”

The company said that only 12% of male staff and 11% of female staff received a bonus in 2022. On average male employees received a bonus worth 72.97% more than their female colleagues. However, Keltbray said that when it calculated median bonuses, women received 14.29% more than men.

The company added that it had made a one-off cost-of-living payment of £1,000 (US$1,242) to all employees paid £60,000 ($74,515) or below.

Keltbray chief executive officer Darren James said that the company was committed to continuing to pursue an inclusion and diversity agenda.

“Our expectation is that through our group diversity and inclusion committee, we will increase the representation of women, particularly at middle management and senior levels across our business,” he said.

Earlier this year the United Kingdom-based Trades Union Congress (TUC) reported that the average gender pay gap across the construction industry stood at 15.8%, and that the gap widens “dramatically” after women have children.

Publishing a gender pay gap report is a requirement of British companies employing 250 or more people.