Every year, employers with 250 or more employees must carry out and publish six statutory calculations under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Dreams must analyse pay information for those employees, employed on 5th April 2023, so the relevant period for this assessment was our April 2023 payroll data.
The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average (mean or median) earnings of male colleagues compared with female colleagues. Gender pay gap reporting is different to equal pay which deals with the pay differences between men and women carrying out the same or similar jobs, or work of equal value.
The bullet points below show the mean and median pay gap using the April 2023 pay data and the bonus gap for the 12-month period prior to 5th April 2023.
Dreams’ mean and median pay gaps are low and much better than the national average. Like-for-like comparisons of previous years are difficult due to furlough periods.
The bonus pay gap includes all colleagues, for the period April 2022 to March 2023. Our bonus pay gap is:
The negative median bonus pay gap of -174.7% shows that the middle point of the women’s bonus figure was 174.7% higher than the male amount. This is because of female colleagues working in parts of our business where the market rates are higher. It’s also due to females working predominately in our retail shops and earning commission.
At 5th April 2023 the split of our workforce was 68% male and 32% female, reflecting a 2% increase in the proportion of female colleagues compared to the previous year.
Dreams has a predominantly male workforce in two of its business areas: Distribution and manufacturing (our Bed Factory).
This calculation shows the proportion of male and female colleagues that received bonus pay during the 12-month period ending 5th April 2023.
Each area of Dreams has its own bonus scheme, and all our colleagues are eligible to earn a bonus. The 3% of males and 2% of females who didn’t earn a bonus in the year is largely due to staff turnover, and new joiners not yet achieving targets.
For this calculation we rank colleagues by their rate of pay from lowest to highest and split the data into four equally split pay quartiles, then present the number of men and women in each quartile.
These quartiles exclude all employees not receiving 100% pay.
We are pleased to report that our gender pay gap remains better than the national average. Maintaining our focus on these gap indicators will be key to upholding fair payment standards in all business areas. Dreams continue to review our recruitment and reward strategy, and efforts are being made to ensure we continue to attract and develop more female talent in our organisation.
This report covers employees of Dreams Ltd, including its affiliated brand Feather & Black. The report encompasses colleagues at all levels and of all job types, including the Executive Directors. As Head of People for Dreams Ltd, I, Shelly Dickinson, can confirm that the information provided in this report is accurate.
Shelly DickinsonHead of People
