Arsenal have released their first ever Gender Pay Gap report analysing the difference in pay between male and female employees.
Unsurprisingly, male employees of Arsenal Football Club earn more than their female counterparts, whether playing staff are included or not. Men make up 73% of the workforce.
As things stand, including players, there is a 79.6% gap in pay between men and women at the club. That drops to 16.8% when players are taken out of the equation, but that’s still higher than the national average of 13.9%.
The median gender pay gap in hourly pay in hourly pay is in favour of females and is significantly lower than the 2016 national median of 18.1% in favour of males.
While football has a long history of being a male-dominated environment the club, acknowledging that there are few women in higher positions at the Emirates, have promised to set targets in an effort to measure their progress in closing the gender pay gap.
The pledges include:
- Increasing diversity across all levels of the club; actively seeking to attract and recruit women
- Continuing to encourage more flexible working and ensuring we promote more agile working
- Increasing diversity in sernior level roles by ensuring shortlists include men and women
- Continuing to ensure Arsenal is a club where diversity is at the centre of how the club operates.
Given the rate at which player wages are being inflated in the men’s game, there’s a fairly high chance that the gap, when taking the first team, academy and coaches into account, could well widen in the years to come. Off the pitch, there is room for real improvement and it’s good to see the club acknowledge that.
im JUST asking, but are things like pregnancy and sitting home with the children counted/considered in these statistics? because women do stay home more often than men in that regard and that could affect what the statistics show.. im just asking, so i dont want any discussion whether its fair or not, of course we should all get paid equal for equal work, but statistics can be misleading sometimes 😀
Doubtful they are included because it blows up the narrative. Forget men and women, let’s say there are two women hired Jan 1. They both do 10 chits of work a week. Woman A has a child and misses 12 weeks (120 chits). Woman B works and at the end of the year has 120 chits more of output. In year 2 the boss needs people to stay late. Woman A has a child at home so the boss asks woman B. At the end of the year Woman B has done 120 chits (from year 1) plus 90 chits… Read more »
I like your approach and don’t mean to criticize it but more expand on it. If the job being discussed in your example does not have a direct correlation between time spent working and effective output, then Woman A could theoretically both have child, miss 12 weeks and still produce more output than Woman B. I’m stretching this analogy but you could compare it to jack wilshere and aaron ramsey this season. Jack has been available to play more football, but Ramsey has contibuted more (debateable statement) in terms of statistics at the very least, so who should be more… Read more »
why do people down-vote instead of replying? 😛 is that because you think taking care of the children is not part of these statistics? As the user Cygans baldspot said in the comment below me, do your research.. I took this from a site when i googled(im sure there are other studies that show something else but here it is): “An important new study makes a compelling case for another explanation: The gender wage gap is mostly a penalty for bearing children. The research comes from Henrik Kleven, an economist at Princeton University. He uses data from a country with… Read more »
Does it take into account that women are allowed to retire 5 years earlier than men, and in general people are higher up the pay scale in their latter career?! Personally I’d be happy for gender pay equality if it means retirement gender equality..
I think people’s pro lemme with the sexist statement is the fact you equate caring for a child during day time hours as just sitting on your arse….. Kindly fuck off
That’s not my stance – I just think it’s a little odd that women live longer and get to retire 5 years earlier than men. How is that not an equality issue? Surely some kind of financial compensation is fair given that men get five years less life outside of work than women?! I’d prefer to take five years of extra life and have less pay, just saying
I’m going to reply here because I see this question brought up a lot in regards to the wage gap. While we don’t know who was involved in the research end of Arsenal Football Club’s study, previous studies done by economists and social psychologists involve extensive peer review and rigorous analysis to identify variance that could inflate the overall deviation. What I’m saying is, scientists and researchers are not stupid, nor can they afford to be (because they will be debunked and their research will be deemed unpublishable). As such, when investigating wages between genders, things like pregnancy and sitting… Read more »
That is true to an extent, but how do you measure subjective elements that are not matter of fact. How many men would take a pay cut if it means an extra five years off work overall? Have they asked women if they’d be happy to make their retirement age 70 for a pay rise? Have they asked how many men would take a pay cut to retire at 65? The stats don’t lie, but they do not always tell the whole story (as we see many weekends on the pitch!)
‘pregnancy and sitting home with the children’
Oh dear. And what for the love of all that’s holy, do either of those things have to do with the fact at blokes earning more than women is totally, utterly, stupidly unfair. My daughter is 18 in a couple of weeks. I fucking hate the fact that, even in the 21st fucking century, she’s highly likely to be thought to be worth less than a boy who’s 18 on the same day. Fucking disgusting. People should stop making excuses and fucking right the fucking wrong.
The pay gap doesn’t exist. One quick 3 minute search will debunk this dogma.
Maybe that’s your problem? Trying to form an opinion on a complicated subject via a three minute search? Unless of course you’re just trying to have an opinion you already hold confirmed, in which case three minutes is, if anything, excessive.
What are you talking about? Have you done your research? I’m guessing you’ve just bought into the mainstream narrative. do some digging– and you’ll see that what you’re talking about is total garbage.
I’ve done some research, yes, because I have for a long time been interested in the study of gender discrimination from the perspective of objective anthropology. Your second comment is a major part of the problem, I didn’t even express a definite point of view either way in regards to whether there is a major pay gap. All I did was point out that this is a complex subject with a lot of variables to consider, and that any suggestion that you could form an informed opinion on it in three minutes is nonsensical. Which you then proceeded to take… Read more »
Of course it exists. There have been serious studies by social scientists using sophisticated statistical analysis in many different industries; I don’t think they have been debunked by other competent researchers.
One quick 3 minute search, however, will provide however much “evidence” you want that colonialism was good for India, that the unemployed are basically lazy, and that Donald Trump is both a genius and a philanthropist.
Well, as long as they are ‘serious’ studies. 😉
Lol 3 minutes on google.
A video by that PrisonPlanet cunt is not sufficient evidence. There is There is clearly an issue, to say there isn’t is just unsustainable.
Just one example: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/royal-bank-of-scotland-pays-female-staff-37-less-than-men-1.3403148
Ok, two: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/01/10/michelle-williams-got-paid-way-less-than-her-male-co-star-its-a-sad-hollywood-tradition/?utm_term=.859d96814eb8
If you want to find evidence to debunk that ridiculous earth being round dogma you can find that too!
There probably is a pay difference based on gender. But this should be taken with a grain of salt. I feel that many women, culturally, aren’t as aggressive in asking for raises as men may be. An employer will try to pay as little in salary increases as possible, so wherever they can trim, they will. Personally, I have found many women to be more loyal to their work than men; it takes a lot of unhappiness for them to pick up and leave a job (I’m not generalizing, just anecdotal evidence in the places I have worked). So they… Read more »
Your second example is really poor
http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/08/ubers-pay-gap-disproves-pay-discrimination-myth/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/karinagness/2016/04/12/dont-buy-into-the-gender-pay-gap-myth/#4b71f0712596
Seriously Arseblog.. is Washington post’s “michelle-williams-got-paid-way-less-than-her-male-co-star” the best you could come up with?
Sounds like 3 minutes on google to me
1 minute.
For fuck sake. I come to this site to get away from all this shite. Can you not just talk about the football?
Agreed. It would be nice to have a DMZ from the kultmarx narrative that is increasingly rammed down everyone’s throat. Apparently not here either.
How about we recruit and pay the best people to do each respective job at the club? If this leads (as quota hunting inevitably does) to active discrimination against better qualified candidates on the basis of their gender, we are crippling ourselves for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Diversity quota hunting is an infinitely deep well – one identity or another will always find themselves under represented. Organisations will be labelled institutionally racist / sexist / transphobic / bigoted no matter what they do. How about we just recruit people on merit, and if that means more women at the club,… Read more »
How about we stop asking sarcastic questions and actually recognize how subjective “merit” actually is? And how about we recognize that, actually, where you look people and what subconscious biases you have massively influence who you hire therefore it’s necessary to take diversity into account when making those decisions?
It’s super easy to just say “let’s hire the best” but no one ever then asks how you actually do that and what biases do you have to take into account.
You’re right, it’s easier said than done. But surely it’s what we should aim for.
We should aim for it but we shouldn’t just assume we’re already doing it, as it feels a lot of people on here are doing. We all need to be aware of our own subconscious biases. A good way of helping the issue is to have a diverse set of eyes looking at hiring and pay, but that’s just one thing Arsenal could do if we don’t already.
Also it wasn’t a sarcastic question, it was a suggestion.
Shouldn’t we hire the best employees possible regardless of the gender?
We should. Which is why highlighting the imbalance between men and women employed (73% men in this instance is important).
How does this pattern of male dominated workforce hold up so consistently for jobs that don’t require gender-specific skills?
It’s quite obvious for me. I bet my hat that there are more males among football followers. It’s quite natural for me that people who want to work for football club are -more or less- interested in football before taking the job.
Because less females have indicated an interest in these jobs?
I wouldn’t know for sure though
Don’t know about you but I want a female manager next.
So long as they have PL experience that would be fine with me.
Yeah, Corinne Diacre did a great job at Clermont in Ligue 2.
Preferable to Brendan Rogers anyway.
That’s one for any CV.
“So what can I offer your organisation? I’m not Brendan Rodgers!”
As Arsene has stated in the past, it doesn’t matter where anyone is from, he plays whoever is best prepared and able to play.
It’s good to see the transparency on Arsenal’s part and the club taking responsibility. As usual, leading the way as a hugely progressive club and community! Class
Things are moving forward and will continue to as our world slowly learns to treat every one with out discrimination. There are some dinosaurs still clinging on to their deep rooted prejudices which rise to the surface for all to see.
Many different groups of people and individuals have been fighting tirelessly for equality for many years. I hope that in my life time it will be the norm for all to be treated with respect and valued.
As someone once said ‘the times they are a changin’
For years the club have been very rude and dismissed the question asked at the agm about the make up of board.
At least they are doing something but shamefully haven’t for far too long
Pay gender equity can only happen if we get rid of this hyper meritocracy when it comes to earnings, with no regard for human wellbeing. Then again, to change anything in will require a serious redistribution of wealth, which won’t happen anytime soon. In conclusion, futile.
How about getting the results on the pitch sorted out before worrying about “diversity”.
Not that I am condemning it at all – its a good thing but come on….
The two things are not mutually exclusive. It’s not like this is going to be in the manager’s remit.
Would love to read the report if it does exist at all. Highly doubt it
https://www.arsenal.com/news/our-gender-pay-gap-report
Why would you doubt its existence?
Oh it does exist. I just read it.
Problem is, you can’t just take a number, say “men on average earn x and women on average earns y” and conclude there is a gender pay gap. There are, no doubts, instances of discrimination in that regards and it needs to be addressed but you’ll find as many reports stating there is such a thing as a gender pay as reports saying there’s no such thing.
that is complete BS
It’s good that Arsenal are looking into it (albeit while being forced by the government), important to be transparent on any discrepancies if they exist. Many on here apparently would rather stick their head in the sand and say “let’s just hire the best” with no thought as to what that means and how they identify those individuals.
Gender pay gap exists but it also works both ways. It can depend on what the audience or clients are looking for, e.g fashion and glamour industry, women dominate it, both in numbers and finances. on the other hand, men dominate the sports industry. Sports is associated with show of skill and strength which is known to be a masculine quality and particularly interest men more. Fashion is associated with enhancing beauty, a feminine trait that interests mostly females. The difference is, you’ll always hear many women is sports, complaining about the pay gap but not many men (if any)… Read more »
I would just like to add to your point about the lack of voice for male issues that, in the UK, prostate cancer now kills more people than breast cancer yet receives half the funding and research. One in eight men will be diagnosed at some point in their lives and yet, unlike breast cancer, there is no NHS national screening.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/02/prostate-cancer-kills-people-breast-cancer-first-time-new-figures/amp/
Even taking out the players. It’s possible that male employees include, Manager, Coaches, etc. Who are all likely to be the best in their fields and well paid. The female staff may perhaps have lesser roles. If it turns out that male ticket sellers are paid more than females doing the same job, then fair point, but lets not compare apples with oranges.
I’m sure Blogs gave it some consideration before doing a story on this but I’m glad he did. While there will always be the refrain that football should be an ‘escape’ from these things, football is part of society (if it wasn’t, none of us would be interested in it). It’s inevitable that it will be filled with exactly the things it ought to be an escape from. So we either ignore these things because it taints our notion of ‘escape’, and watch the game decline, or we discuss them openly and calmly, even if we disagree. This discussion seems… Read more »
“Continuing to ensure Arsenal is a club where diversity is at the centre of how the club operates.”
Well we certainly achieve that. We go to Milan and win and play abjectly at Brighton and lose. You can’t get much more ‘diverse’ than that.
Incidentally – @PrisonPlanet is very good ??
Ivan’s wages certainly have a big impact right? I would love to see someone else in his chair, let’s take the chance to set things straight and boot him for a better prepared woman.
I just want Arsenal to hire whoever can do the best job-regardless of the shape of their genitalia and regardless of their face,skin colour,or any other characteristics.If that means hiring more women-then great.If that means to continue to hire men,if men prove themselves to do a better job then women,then why not.I don’t care for diversity for the sake of it.
It’s a dead thread now but…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GWHgVZJQU&feature=share