2023 Spirit AeroSystems (Europe) Limited UK Gender Pay Gap Report
-
Introduction
Spirit AeroSystems (Europe) Limited (‘Spirit’ or ‘the Company’) values our employees and the contribution they make. We pay all of our employees commensurate with the market for the position they are in and their unique skills and experience. Spirit employees enjoy a working environment where there are equal opportunities for everyone to fulfil their potential and contribute to the success of the business, irrespective of gender.
-
Nature of Business
Spirit is the wholly owned subsidiary of Spirit AeroSystems, Inc., a global company. Spirit’s customers include Airbus and Boeing. Spirit designs, develops, and manufactures complex structures for the aerospace industry. Spirit’s manufacturing facility is located in Prestwick, Scotland.
Spirit had 982 Full Pay Relevant Employees at the snapshot date of 5th April 2022, comprising of various skill-sets including; design, engineering, transfer and project management skills, as well as a highly skilled manufacturing population.
The workforce is predominately male, with 94 female members of staff (9.6%) and 888 male members of staff (90.4%).
-
Gender Pay Calculations
The Gender Pay Gap (the 'GPG') is a measure of the difference in the average pay of men and women – regardless of the nature of their work – employed by Spirit.
Annually, companies which employ more than 250 employees must report the following:
- Mean and Median GPG in hourly pay;
- Mean and Median bonus GPG;
- Proportion of men and women who receive a bonus; and
- Distribution of men and women across pay quartiles.
The GPG shows the difference between the mean (average) and median (mid-point) hourly earnings and bonus payments for both male and female employees, expressed as a percentage.
Distribution of all employees across the pay quartiles (at April 5, 2022)
Male
Female
Upper Quartile
87.04%
12.96%
Upper Middle Quartile
88.16%
11.84%
Lower Middle Quartile
98.78%%
1.22%
Lower Quartile
87.70%
12.30%
Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay:
- Mean Pay Gap: - 8.74 %. This means that the mean average hourly rate for female employees is -8.74% more than for male employees.
- Median Pay Gap: - 9.64% This means the median hourly rate for female employees is - 9.64% more than for male employees
In the 12 months preceding April 2022, 93.68% of males and 97.64% of females received a bonus.
Bonus GPG:
- Mean Bonus Gap: -28.45% Mean (average) female bonus earnings are
- -28.45% higher than male employees
- Median Bonus Gap:- 9.11% Median (middle) female bonus earnings are
- -9.11% higher than male employees.
-
Apprenticeships
In 2017 we implemented our Graduate Apprenticeship Programme, which now has 15 participants across both Engineering and Business Management degrees, with 13% female participation. We are actively working with Strathclyde University regarding further opportunities for enrolment which will commence in September 2023.
Our Modern Apprenticeship Programme continues to mature, with a current population of 53 employees engaged on a 4-year fixed term contract. We are actively recruiting a further 15 Apprentices in 2023. The MA population equates to 9% of our manual workforce. Of the current 53 employees on the Apprenticeship programme, 9% are female.
-
Recruitment
In 2018, Spirit demonstrated our commitment to see gender balance at all levels of the business by committing to the UK government’s Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter. The charter commits Spirit to drive towards an aspiration to see gender balance at all levels across the industry.
Spirit will continue to support females into the business and we continue to review and improve our workplace policies in support of family friendly initiatives including growth in flexible working.
Since January 2022 to date (Feb 2023), we have recruited approximately 161 people into the business in various roles and levels, with 11% of these being female.
Positive Steps to Recruitment
Spirit AeroSystems recognise that females are still under-represented in STEM roles nationally and we are no different to that. In order to address this, we have various initiatives where employees promote these careers within the school environment – both at primary and secondary level. We have a number of females within the business who support these initiatives and continue to reinforce the message that there are lots of opportunities in this field.
Some activities we are currently considering in furthering promoting our industry to increase female applicants.
- Potential to review Spirit adverts to ensure they are written gender neutral
- Further exploration of this topic as part of our Diversity Council
- Expanding our Learning Academy to incorporate in person STEM events in local schools and career fairs
Our Resin Transfer Moulding Spoiler Facility
Following the slow-down of the Aerospace Industry during the global pandemic, we continue to have a healthy backlog of aircraft orders across all our main manufacturing programs at Prestwick which is great news for the future outlook of our factory. That said and as a result of a combination of supply chain issues, particularly material availability from the Russia and Ukraine conflict, a reduction in available skilled resources to employ and attrition across many skillsets across our factory the period of growth and rate ramp up has been slower than predicted. There is a need to grow as our rates have increased, but the wider Aerospace industry is reacting slower to meet the demand. This means we need to recruit both manufacturing and support staff across many skillsets to be able to achieve the higher rates. The Prestwick site has become the single source supplier of Spoilers to our Airbus customer having repatriated the manufacturing process from Malaysia through 2021 and 2022. As we phased out the Malaysian product with the Prestwick product, the transition is complete and the Prestwick ramp up to full volume continues to mature as we strive to maintain our weekly and monthly targets towards a healthy buffer position. Over the course of 2023 we will recruit a further 20 manufacturing employees to the Spoiler factory and over 20 manufacturing employees to the existing production areas coming from a mixed skill background.
Spirit are part of the wider Prestwick Aerospace manufacturing community and play an active part in the regions skilled manufacturing talent sector and remain committed to providing many exciting opportunities for people who would have previously been employed in a non-aerospace environment. It will also allow Spirit to broaden the diversity of our workforce in line with the gender-based initiatives as mentioned above.
-
Download
