Travel’s gender pay gap: TTG probe reveals women still earning significantly less

Tui isn’t alone, though, with few airlines employing significant numbers of women in lucrative roles.

At Ryanair, women occupy only 2.4% of the highest-paid jobs and 56.8% of the lowest paid. Amid high levels of gender inequality, Wizz Air was the only airline to meaningfully shrink its GPG over the past year. 

Women working at the Budapest-headquartered carrier, which operates from several UK airports, have gone from earning 63% less than their male counterparts in 2021/22 to 48.2% less during the most recent 2022/23 reporting period, while also occupying 58% of the highest-paid jobs.

Positive signs

Despite high levels of pay inequality, there are some encouraging trends throughout the travel and tourism sector, with most UK airports required to report their GPG figures showing progress over the past year by inching closer to parity.

Gatwick, the data shows, narrowed its salary gap between men and women by 25% (to 19.5%) over the past year, the most of any UK airport, followed by Stansted with an 18.1% reduction and Edinburgh at 14.2%.

“It is very positive the gender pay gap has shrunk in recent years at the majority of UK airports – and it must continue to shrink,” said C&M managing director Basia Kolosinska.

Airports are not the only employers in travel and tourism to have taken significant steps to address gender-based pay inequalities, with most major UK travel agencies increasing female representation in higher-paid jobs over the past year.

According to the figures collated by TTG, the number of women occupying higher-paid positions has increased in the past year and stands at eight out of 10 at the travel agencies who reported their GPG data.

At corporate Reed & Mackay, the percentage of women occupying top positions has grown by almost 10% between the 2019/20 reporting period and 2022/23, while female representation at Tui UK grew by 8.3% over the same period of time.

Data also showed agents are better positioned when it comes to average pay, with six out of 10 agencies having narrowed their hourly pay gap over the past few years.

Between 2021/22 and 2022/23, Tui UK and Expedia reduced salary inequality by 4.8% and 2.2% respectively.

Lindsay Garvey-Jones, chair of the Association of Women Travel Executives (AWTE), told TTG agencies closing their GPG was due to behind-the-scenes efforts to attract new talent “and to support those staying in their roles”.

“The GPG has to be addressed as a priority,” said Garvey-Jones. “Our frontline [agency] staff are [predominantly female] professionals, they’re experts and they’re consumer-facing.”

Drive for diversity

Operators required to report their gender pay figures have also steadily increased their female representation, with Kuoni parent Der Touristik UK going from having no women occupying top jobs to these roles being 60% female-filled in the past year.

Mark Duguid, Kuoni UK managing director, told TTG the group was committed to “creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all employees are treated fairly with dignity and respect”.

However, despite some progress in recent years, Kolosinska said men’s and women’s salaries remain unequal, on average. “This is something that we absolutely need to focus on and work harder at as a sector,” she urged. “It is an amazing industry to work in, and we need to attract talent at all levels.”

Her words were echoed by Garvey-Jones, who added it was up to the industry “to make things better for the next generation and those after that”.