Sony, Universal and Warner forced to explain ‘disappointing’ gender pay gaps
Representatives from Sony, Universal and Warner today were forced to explain the gender pay gaps in their companies as they were questioned by MPs in parliament.
Reports on salaries at the organisations in 2022 revealed Warner had an average gender pay gap of just under 38 per cent – a slight rise on the previous year. Sony recorded a 20 per cent gap, an eight per cent drop on 2021, while Universal’s was just under 26 per cent, a fall of close to a third.
Isabel Garvey, Warner chief operating officer, told MPs that her label’s gender pay gap figures were a “snapshot” based on “headline numbers”.
“I think ours is the most disappointing so I’m happy to call that out now,” she told MPs today.
“The challenge is about representation in the top quartile. We have fewer women in the top quartile and when you think about it they are the best paid jobs, and have quite long tenure so it takes time for those to change,” she said.
“Had we run our report a month later, we had a restructure and several promotions [and] that number would have come down by seven per cent,” she said.
Natasha Mann, diversity and inclusion director at Universal, said the label had launched a programme to get female staff to “lane switch” into artist and repertoire (A&R) roles.
“I cannot overstate what a well paid part of the business [A&R] is,” she said. “They might be better paid than the managing director and it’s largely male and we have to address it.”
“It can feel off-putting if you just see no one that looks like you,” she said.
Jessica Carsen, senior vice president at Sony, said “our median pay gap is only around one per cent higher than the national average”.
“Obviously I would like there to be no gender pay gap,” she added.
“You see these numbers being swayed by senior leadership roles and recently we have put a big focus on more senior women in the record labels. That really is a huge part of changing the industry for the future,” she said.
It comes amid an inquiry by MPs into misogyny in the music industry, following complaints by artists including pop star Taylor Swift into “power imbalances” and experiencing sexual assault.