A members’ motion aimed at addressing pay gap was passed at the Co-operative Group’s AGM today. Co-op members called on the board to review the current pay ratio from top to bottom and set a strategy to narrow the differential to an appropriate level. Both the board and the council of members recommended voting for this motion, which passed by 97% of the votes.
The motion also asks the co-op to progress towards paying the living wage agreed by the Living Wage Foundation, a goal set out at last year’s AGM. The Co-op is currently paying above the National Living Wage. In an attempt to address the pay gap, the Co-op is conducting a review of executive pay, the results of which will be revealed next year. Pay ratio data is also included in the Group’s Remuneration Report.
According to the report, the Co-op’s ratio between its highest paid executive and lowest paid colleague in April 2017 was 1:51 on Base Pay only or 1:101 for Base Pay plus on target incentives.
Compared to previous years, the society is offering a lower overall pay package to its chief executive as well as new executives joining or being promoted. Other executives have had no salary increases since 2014 while chair Allan Leighton is donating all of his fees to the Co-op Foundation. Executive pay falls in line with the Co-op’s Remuneration policy, voted for by 90% of members at last year’s AGM.
The board supported the motion on the basis that its aims reflected much of what the Co-op had already done and continued to do. It also cautioned that actual changes in pay ratios would move from year to year depending on a number of factors including the success of the business and the impact of that on performance related pay.
On paying the Living Wage Foundation’s rate of £8.45 (and £9.75 in London), Stevie Springs, chair of the remuneration committee, said: “We’d love to be the first retailer to do that, but we have to be realistic. By raising pay to that level we’d need to find another £45m for each of the next three years. It’s hugely ambitious in a cutthroat market. It’s a big hairy audacious goal, but we want to find a way to get there.”
