At Wayfair, we are committed to embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into every aspect of our organisation - across every team and initiative.
This is shown in our compensation philosophy, which is driven by a centralised, global compensation team tasked with maintaining market competitiveness and mitigating pay bias. At Wayfair, raises and compensation targets are determined through a formulaic, performance-driven approach, which we believe drives pay equity.
Wayfair is also committed to rewarding its employees’ performance through competitive salaries and structures that include base salary, bonus and shift premiums (if applicable), and equity compensation (from a certain seniority level).
UK Gender Pay Gap Results
Gender pay gap results show the difference between the average pay of men and women across our UK-based workforce, but they do not account for all differences in role, performance, tenure, level, or other relevant metrics that drive compensation at Wayfair. Nevertheless, these results help us identify areas in which we can continue improving to ensure we are building an equitable and inclusive workforce.
As of April 2021, Wayfair UK’s gender pay gap results show a mean pay gap of 6.8% and 4% at the median. Similarly, the average pay gap in bonus pay was 4.2%. At the median, however, we had a -4.7% bonus pay gap, which indicates women received higher median bonus pay than men.
These results are driven by the makeup of our UK employee population, which continues to be disproportionately comprised of men (67% men vs 33% women), mainly due to our current front-line warehouse population. Although we continue to have more women than men employed in our Corporate offices, we have seen the share of women in leadership decline from April 2020 to April 2021. This trend partly explains the difference in our results this year compared to the previous.
Additionally, our analysis found that around half of the average pay gaps in hourly pay are driven by equity compensation. The value of equity as included in the calculations is driven by the share price at the time of vesting. This means that the continued appreciation of our stock price in the period between April 2020 and April 2021 contributed to differences in pay for our equity-eligible employees.
At Wayfair, We Are Always Improving
These results show that although our compensation approach is making strides in mitigating pay bias in terms of base pay, representation of women in more senior roles continues to be an area in which Wayfair UK can keep improving.
We are making big moves to do this with our representation goals and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to recruit, grow, and retain more women in leadership. In 2021, for example, Wayfair created a talent acquisition lane focused on attracting top talent from underrepresented groups across Europe. The team is aspiring for parity in women and non-binary new hires in senior roles. Additionally, our team’s focus on DEI sourcing and training ensures inclusive job descriptions and interview experience.
Internally, we have a vast range of affinity and employee resource groups aligned to different dimensions of diversity and intersectionality, some of which focus on women and non-binary populations in the workplace, creating an environment where employees can find development opportunities with and from their peers. Wayfair also partners locally to help women drive their careers further through mentoring, networking opportunities and direct event sponsorship or sponsoring of our employee’s attendance. Moving forward, we’ll continue to rely on data and research to understand the needs of our women employees regarding career development and work-life balance that will inform potential changes to our policies and benefits.
Making change in a global company requires the buy-in and support of all stakeholders, especially senior leaders. Through toolkits, training, web-based resources, and events, we engage our leaders and employees on DEI issues and provide deep knowledge around these topics. We have also placed a heavy emphasis on implementing the organisational structure and governance needed to thoroughly embed DEI comprehensively within Wayfair.
Change Starts at Home
Wayfair is committed to enabling an inclusive culture, where every employee, future and present, is seen, valued, and invited to contribute to a thriving global community. You can read more about our global initiatives to achieve this in our annual DEI Report.
