Lendlease Is The First Real Estate Company To Publish How Much Less It Pays Women Than Men

Lendlease has become the first property company to reveal its gender pay gap as part of a government initiative to reduce pay differences between men and women. 

The Australian firm, which has construction and property divisions, said that across its U.K. business women were on average paid 19% less per hour than men. In its construction division women were paid 30% less.

When it came to bonuses the gap widened — the entire company the gap between male and female bonuses was 46%, even though women were just as likely to receive a bonus as men.

The U.K. government is making all companies that employ more than 250 people publish information on their gender pay gap by April, and Lendlease said it had published the figures ahead of the deadline as it wanted to be an early adopter and show its commitment to diversity.

Under the legislation, gender pay measurement is different from equal pay as it is not measuring the parity of pay for roles of the same level. Instead it compares the average pay by gender of all roles collectively, regardless of level or type.

Lendlease also said that around 80% of its highest earners — the top quarter — were men, highlighting the fact that there are fewer women in senior roles.

It said 29% of its staff were women, with the same figure in executive roles, and that it was looking to increase the latter figure to 33%.

“If we fail to take proactive action, both as a company and as an industry, then we will all suffer as a whole,” Lendlease International Operations CEO Dan Labbard said. “Although the industry is working hard to break down many barriers and perceptions which have held the sector back, we need to fast-track this change.”

Lendlease said it was introducing a variety of measures to reduce its gender pay gap and increase female representation at senior levels, including making gender representation targets part of its senior leadership’s performance targets; introducing enhanced parental leave with equal entitlement, irrespective of gender; and introducing unconscious bias training across the organisation.