Vitality’s 2024 gender and ethnicity pay gap report
At Vitality, we’re committed to diversity and inclusion because it’s good for our employees, for our business, and for society.
We want all our great people to bring all of themselves to work, so that they can liberate the best in themselves. We know that diversity fosters innovation, which is part of our DNA. And we believe that inclusive diversity promotes social cohesion, which benefits society.
Diversity and inclusion chime with our shared value model, and advance our core purpose, which is to make people healthier and enhance and protect their lives. Diversity and inclusion are also explicitly called out in our values.
Gender pay gap
We have successfully reduced our mean gender pay gap by 0.73% since last year and 12.68% since 2018.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean pay gap | 31.55 | 26.59 | 25.79 | 22.92 | 20.94 | 19.60 | 18.87% |
| Median pay gap | 16.50 | 15.52 | 15.03 | 12.12 | 10.28 | 9.81 | 6.73% |
We’re confident that men and women get equivalent pay for equivalent work at Vitality. This was confirmed by a review which established that differences in pay for the same role are explained by factors such as performance, experience, tenure, and office location (London jobs attract a premium) – and are not influenced by gender or ethnicity.
Our pay gap is explained by the under-representation of female employees in senior leadership roles. We are committed to increasing the number of women in these roles as positions become available and will be able to draw on a strong layer of female talent at the level below the executive.
Vitality has implemented a raft of initiatives aimed at facilitating the advancement of women, and we’re making good progress. We have:
- Signed up to the Women in Finance Charter, with a goal of gender parity at senior levels by the end of 2025. We’re on track to achieve that goal.
- Set a target of 60% external female appointments to higher paying roles – and we’re meeting that target.
- Enhanced and equalised parental leave entitlements and signed up to the Association of British Insurers’ transparent parental leave and pay initiative.
- Changed our recruitment and selection practices to source more talented women, including using gender neutral language and promoting flexible working options. Our hybrid working policy, which requires employees to attend the office two days a week, also supports working parents.
- Continued our annual executive mentoring programmes for high performing, high potential employees – more than half the mentees are female or from an ethnic minority background.
- Applied a gender lens to succession planning to develop a female talent pipeline.
- Consulted our Women’s Forum on gender-related issues.
- Showcased women’s achievements via internal communications platforms.
- Encouraged employees to update their diversity data on our HR system to enable us to track progress.
- Continued to evolve the D&I hub on our internal communications platform.
- Launched the third round of a leadership development programme in partnership with everywoman.
- Introduced leadership competency assessments for senior roles to reduce unconscious bias in the selection process.
- Published a menopause policy.
- Offered menopause, parenthood, and fertility support services to employees.
2024 gender pay gap numbers
| Difference between men and women |
||
|---|---|---|
| |
Mean |
Median |
| Hourly fixed pay | 18.87 | 6.73 |
| Bonus paid | 67.74 | 18.26 |
This table reflects our gender pay gap at the snapshot date (5 April 2024).
Bonus distribution
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus distribution | 96% |
97% |
Pay quartiles
2,429 employees in total (1,279 female, 1,150 male). 607 or 608 employees in each quartile.
| Pay quartiles | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | 53% | 47% |
| Quartile 2 | 60% | 40% |
| Quartile 3 | 54% | 46% |
| Highest | 44% | 56% |
Ethnicity pay gap
Our ethnicity pay gap for 2024, calculated using data provided voluntarily by employees, was 9.08%. In 2023 it was 6.53%, and in 2022 it was 4.49%. The relatively small size of this cohort of employees makes these numbers sensitive to small changes in employee demographics.
We recorded a 4.4% increase in the percentage of ethnic minority employees in 2024, which may be linked to a 19% increase in the ethnicity disclosure rate.
| Mean | Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly fixed pay | 9.08% | 6.90% |
| Bonus paid | 48.59% | 18.71% |
The profile of employees who have disclosed their ethnicity is detailed below:
| Headcount | ||
|---|---|---|
| BAME | 308 | 13% |
| White | 1,699 | 70% |
| Not disclosed | 422 | 17% |
Our ethnicity pay gap is explained by the under-representation of Black, Asian and ethnic minority employees in senior leadership roles. We are confident employees receive equivalent pay for equivalent work regardless of their ethnicity.
We are committed to increasing the number of employees from an ethnic minority background in senior leadership roles and to developing a strong talent pipeline of ethnic minority employees.
To support the advancement of employees from an ethnic minority background at Vitality, we have (in consultation with Vitality’s Let’s Talk Race Forum):
- Published our commitment to diversity and inclusion on our careers site.
- Signed the Race at Work Charter.
- Supported a campaign to make ethnicity pay gap reporting mandatory.
- Applied a D&I lens to our engagement survey analysis.
- Applied an ethnicity lens to succession planning.
- Observed Black History month in various ways.
- Rolled out a webinar, in partnership with Inclusive Employers, on allyship with an ethnicity focus.
Other D&I initiatives
Other D&I-related initiatives at Vitality which have supported employees of all ethnicities and genders included the introduction of:
- A flexi-retirement benefit
- An ADHD and autism diagnosis and treatment benefit
- Access to Inflow, an app created by ADHD clinicians and psychologists to help people understand neurodivergence, build lifelong skills, and get things done.
- Neurodiversity training and guidelines for managers
Vitality has four employee resource groups: the Women’s Forum, the Let’s Talk Race Forum, the LGBTQ+ Forum, and the Neurodiversity Forum. These forums meet quarterly and provide a platform for sharing ideas and experiences, and for proposing initiatives to make Vitality even more inclusive. All the forums are chaired by a member of the executive team.
Judy Parfitt
Chief People Officer, Vitality