2020
UK GENDER PAY GAP2020
UK GENDER PAY GAP

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly rate of pay received
by all male and female employees across an organisation, irrespective of their role orseniority. This is distinct from Equal Pay laws, which have required men and women
performing equal work to be paid equally since the 1970s; we are confident from
our internal benchmarking and salary reviews that we do this at Sony Interactive
Entertainment (SIE).
Gender pay gap reporting makes use of two types of averages:• The mean, which is the sum of every employee’s hourly rate of pay divided by thetotal number of employees.
• The median, which is the exact middle point between the employees with the lowest
and highest hourly rates of pay.
The gap is the difference between these averages for male and female employees.
It has been widely reported that gender pay gaps are particularly prevalent in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) sectors because of the significantly higher
number of men working in the industry. This is demonstrated through the gender pay
gap averages reported for our sector last year1, which had a 12.5% mean gender pay gap
and a 14.4% median gender pay gap.
Our own 2020 UK reporting shows that at SIE, our mean gender pay gap is 13.48% andour median gender pay gap is 10.72%.
The statistics below are based on a snapshot of data taken on 5th April 2020.

OUR FIGURESGENDER PAY & BONUS GAPDIFFERE N C E BE T W E E N
MEN & WO M E N

MEDIAN

MEAN

Gender Pay Gap

10.72%

13.48%

Gender Bonus Gap

26.01%

30.04%

1.	Our sector is classified as ‘Information and Communication’, which covers companies that filed under the following areas; Publishingactivities; Software publishing; Publishing of computer games; Other software publishing; Motion picture, video and television
programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities; Computer programming, consultancy and related activities;
Information service activities etc. Statistics per sector are available on the ONS website here.

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2020
UK GENDER PAY GAPPROPORTION OF EMPLOYEESRECEIVING 2020 BONUS

Received Bonus(Male: 75%, Female: 90%)

No Bonus Received(Male: 25%, Female 10%)

25%10%MALE

75%FEMALE

90%

PROPORTION OF MALE AND FEMALE
EMPLOYEES PER EARNINGS QUARTILE(393 EMPLOYEES PER QUARTILE)

FemaleMaleU P P ER QUA RTILE

18%

82%

UPPER MI DDLE QUA RTILE

21%

79%

LOWER M IDDLE QUA RTILE

38%

62%

LOW ER QUA RTILE

20%

80%3

2020
UK GENDER PAY GAP

WHAT IS BEHIND OUR GENDERPAY GAP?
Our employee population is 75.5% maleand 24.5% female. The male/female
imbalance is particularly evident in ourmost senior roles, where we employ overfour times as many men than women.
These leadership positions naturally
have higher salaries and bonuses, so thegreater proportion of men to women has
a significant impact on our overall gender
pay and bonus gaps.

• Actively measuring and managing thediversity metrics of our applicant pooland employee base
• Committing to UKIE’s #RaiseTheGame
Diversity Pledge for the videogames
sector

WHAT IS BEHIND THE INDUSTRY
GENDER PAY GAP?
Technology has historically been a maledominated industry. In 2019 womenmade up an estimated 24% of the UK’s
STEM industry workforce2, and this is oneof the main factors contributing to ourgender pay gap.
The fact that in 2018 only 29% of UK STEM
subject graduates were female3 perpetuates
this imbalance as it leads to fewer womenentering STEM-related careers and, as aresult, means that fewer women are in line
for leadership positions in later years.
WHAT ARE WE DOING TO CLOSE
THE GAP?
We are dedicated to closing the gap
within our company. We have adopted,and continue to develop, several
initiatives to make a difference to ourgender pay gap, including:• Continuing to offer a suite of policies that
support employees with families andother personal commitments, including
our flexible hours and remote working
policy. Additionally, we launched Talking
Talent Talking Online, a go-to resource
for working parents, with downloadable
templates, step-by-step guidance, andbite-sized advice from peers and coaches• Encouraging women to apply for roles
at SIE through targeted employer
branding, job boards and recruitment
channels• Investing in our Women@PlayStation
employee resource group and wider
Diversity Network to fund internal andexternal events and initiatives

While working to reduce our own gender
pay gap, we are also striving to reduce
the gender pay gap of the gaming
industry overall.
Given that our industry’s gap islargely caused by low levels of female
employees, we are trying to encourage
more girls in the UK to pursue STEM
related subjects at school through ourDigital Bootcamps.
The Bootcamps, organised alongside
InnovateHer, are aimed at 11-16 year-oldgirls and are sponsored by PlayStation®.
Ordinarily, each Bootcamp lasts 8 weeks
and includes bespoke coding and gamedesign workshops which aim to inspiregirls in local communities to pursue acareer in the gaming industry.
As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded,
we were forced to put our in-person
Bootcamp sessions on hold. However, inplace of the in-person sessions, we began
to offer a virtual version of the bootcamp
to young girls and non-binary people
across the country, increasing the reachof the programme.
We look forward to continuing to developthese programmes further.
Our aspiration is to increase the numberof women working at SIE and continue
to make our company a place where
women can progress, succeed and thrive.
We will be monitoring the effectivenessof these initiatives and will be proactive
in exploring any additional action we cantake to close our gap.

2. https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/statistics/2019-workforce-statistics-one-million-women-in-stem-in-the-uk/
3. https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/statistics/annual-core-stem-stats-round-up-2019-20/

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