Glaxo Gender Pay Gap Ranks Among Slimmest for U.K. Companies

(Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the only major drugmaker led by a woman, has one of the smallest gender pay gaps reported at large U.K. companies so far.

Women at Glaxo are paid about 3 percent less than men in Britain, compared with the national average of about 17 percent, London-based Glaxo said Tuesday in its annual report. The U.K.’s largest drug company said it’s seeing a steady rise in the percentage of women in senior positions.

Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley has revamped Glaxo’s top ranks since taking the reins almost a year ago, as she seeks to bring new ideas, skills and diversity to the team. She’s named Karenann Terrell as the top technology officer, Christine Roth as head the oncology franchise, and Tamara Rogers as head of the consumer division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As of January, about 40 percent of the drugmaker’s top executives had changed.

About 9,000 U.K. companies are now legally required to report differences between salaries and bonuses paid to male and female employees on a mean and median hourly basis and the proportion of each gender receiving a bonus. Companies with 250 employees or more in Britain have until April 4 to provide the figures.

Overall, the proportion of women in management roles at Glaxo is 44 percent, according to the report. A 2017 review of FTSE 100 companies found that 42 percent of Glaxo’s board members were female, eighth-most in the index. The company said it had about 26 percent female representation among executive-committee members and direct reports, in line with FTSE 100 average.

EasyJet Plc, Britain’s biggest discount airline, came under fire after saying in November that there was about a 52 percent pay difference between men and women, driven by the gender imbalance among pilots, its highest-paid position.

Hal Barron, who became Glaxo’s president of research and development in January, is receiving a base salary of $1.7 million, and his total compensation is “within the competitive range” seen among the company’s global pharma peers, according to the report. Walmsley will receive a base salary of about 1.03 million pounds ($1.44 million) for the year, the report said.

Glaxo released pay figures from its U.K. subsidiaries to the government and an overall figure for Britain in its annual report.

--With assistance from Benjamin Katz and David Hellier

To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in London at jpaton4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, John Lauerman

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