At Wesleyan we are committed to building an inclusive and diverse organisation as we recognise that genuine diversity of thought leads to better decision-making and makes us more reflective of our customers.
This is the ninth year where we’ve reported our gender pay gap which measures the difference between the earnings of men and women across the organisation.
Our gender pay gap has increased slightly this year, partly due to minor attrition in our senior leadership group but also due to the growth in female representation through recruitment and promotion into roles that typically have lower market pay levels. We have an ongoing commitment to better understand the factors driving our pay gap and are continuing to review and introduce new initiatives to address the gap.
Wesleyan gender pay gap results
As of April 2025, Wesleyan's average mean gender pay gap was 24.21% (2024: 21.72%) and the median gender pay gap was 28.21% (2024: 27.38%). This is a Group position that includes our subsidiary companies.
Wesleyan bonus pay gap results
As of April 2024, the mean bonus pay gap was 46.06% (2023: 42.11%).
Over 94% of colleagues received a bonus payment.
Most bonus payments at Wesleyan are calculated as a percentage of annual salary. Therefore, even though the basis for awarding a bonus is the same, the bonus pay gap is larger than the gender pay gap because we have more women working part-time than men and we have more men in senior positions earning a higher salary.
Our data in detail
We spend a proportion of our salary budget to increase our minimum salary and to move employees to a higher percentage of our Market Anchor Pay Points. As part of our 2026 salary review process, we have increased our minimum salary that we offer to £24,480. During the pay review process women received a slightly higher median pay increase particularly impacting our more junior grades.
The Market Anchor Points for our job families are set using external salary benchmarking data and our analysis has identified that we have a higher proportion of men in job families with higher Market Anchor Points - for example Investments and Actuarial - compared to job families with slightly lower MAPs - for example HR and Customer Services - where there are more women.
Women in Senior Leadership
Over the past few years, we have put several initiatives in place to increase the proportion of women employed in senior positions. By the end of 2025 we had increased our representation of women at senior leadership level to 44.44% (2024: 43.68%). This meant we exceeded our target of 42% for 2025.
We will aim to continue this trajectory to meet our target gender equity within our business over the forthcoming years.
The initiatives used to address our senior leadership imbalance are also reflected at all job grades; we aim for diverse shortlists for all our vacancies and use diverse panels at interviews. In addition to our work within recruitment, we also include a gender lens in our pay review process to ensure that no pay inequalities are introduced at this stage.
We offer a range of accessible career development programmes to encourage the career progression of our colleagues, including Apprenticeships, leadership qualifications and internal/external mentoring programmes. Our award-winning Bounce Forward career development programme focuses on developing the mindset, skills and strengths to navigate career pathways, as well as removing some of the perceived barriers to progression.
How are we working to close the gap?
2025 saw the start of our new two-year Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy which supports our transformation journey and ensures fairness in opportunities, representation and reward. We know that inclusive teams make better decisions and reflect the customers we serve. That’s why we continue to embed DEI into our policies, processes and leadership practices.
Despite a challenging external environment, we made strong progress against our five priorities:
- Strengthening leadership accountability
- Improving representation
- Driving for better pay equity
- Supporting disability & social mobility
- Increasing data disclosure
Introduced DEI dashboards and toolkits for leaders, launched new training on inclusive behaviours, and strengthened senior sponsorship of Employee Network Groups.
Exceeded our target for female senior leadership (44.4% against a 42% target), improved recruitment offers to women (52%) and ethnic minority candidates (34%) and maintained 30% female representation on our Board.
Implemented pay equity measures, uplifted National Living Wage by 8%, and published gender and ethnicity pay gap reports for transparency.
Achieved Level 3 Disability Confident accreditation and launched Reasonable Adjustments Passports.
Maintained high disclosure rates (90%+ for gender, ethnicity, disability) and improved sexual orientation disclosure to 74%.
We also have four Employee Network Groups in place (gender, ethnicity, LGBTQi+ and Wellbeing) who play a vital role in bringing colleagues together to shape our culture and create change. Over 2025 they worked to raise awareness of and celebrate important dates and events, sharing food, stories and traditions, both online and via our events.
Our commitment
We will continue to build on our progress through 2026 and reiterate our commitment: DEI is not a standalone initiative, it’s integral to how we work, lead and grow. We remain committed to continue to analyse our data and have effective measures in place to close the gap.
We are committed to building a workplace where every individual feels valued, respected, and empowered to succeed. Together, we are building a brighter, more inclusive future for all.