Bonus Pay Gap

Considering all types of bonuses within NNL, year-on-year the number of staff receiving a bonus is increasing.

There are a number of reasons an employee may not be eligible to receive the bonus within a given year (for example the bonus payments are based on the previous financial year so any new starters who join after the new financial year has started will not receive the bonus payment for the previous year).

Total number of all employees eligible to receive a bonus

The total percentage of men and women receiving a bonus has decreased this year, as shown below, due to the impact of a large number of new starters. NNL is currently continuing to recruit at a very high level and so this effect may persist whilst our current unprecedented growth continues.

Percentage of eligible workforce in receipt of a bonus of any type

NNL has a company-wide Target Achievement Scheme (TAS), which the majority of the workforce are eligible to receive. This bonus scheme pays the same amount to all eligible employees, thus producing a median of zero for the bonus pay gap year-on-year. A proportion of staff are eligible for the TAS bonus and a personal bonus combined and a further proportion just receive a personal bonus. The mean bonus pay gap for all bonus types in 2021 was 12.3%. This reflects the differing personal bonus payments and that pro rata payments are made to part-time staff of which a relatively large proportion are women.

The mean bonus pay gap saw an increase up to 2019 but this has begun to decrease over the last two years. The variation in mean is due to changes in the difference in personal bonus, discussed further below, and in pro rata bonus payments for part-time staff.

Mean bonus pay gap over the last five years

There is quite a lot of variation seen in the personal bonus pay gap over the last five years, with this year providing the highest mean value. NNL has 320 staff (30% of workforce) who are eligible to receive a personal bonus (the bonus amount differs depending on scheme rules and on the basic pay of those who receive it), with 23% of these being women. In 2021, the mean personal bonus pay gap was 18.2% and the median was 3.6%. The vast majority of staff who receive this personal bonus are senior managers and our executive team, hence it is easy to see how this might vary with just a few position changes or new starters among these roles.

Year-on-year pay rises at NNL are based on a percentage increase of the current salary and personal bonus is calculated as a percentage of the current salary. Hence, cumulatively, it is clear that higher-paid staff will get a bigger increase on their bonus each year. This highlights that, percentage-wise, fewer women receive a personal bonus and those that do are at the lower end of the scale for personal bonuses. A few key changes in staff (new hires and promotions) would even out the pay gap quickly, as seen in the 2019 and 2020 data.

Mean and median personal bonus pay gap over five years

Case Study - Hybrid Working