Capstone Project Assignment PDF

Running head: CAPSTONE PROJECT
Capstone Project
Gender pay gap among airlines operating in Ryanair and British Airways
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

CAPSTONE PROJECT1
Table of Contents
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................2
Evaluating the demographic of the airlines staff jobs............................................................2
Existence of gender pay gap in various industries.................................................................3
Analysing the current pay gap data in airlines industry.........................................................4
The probable reasons for the existence of Gender pay gap...................................................5
Research methodology...............................................................................................................8
Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................8
Research Design...................................................................................................................10
Data collection method........................................................................................................12
Data analysis technique........................................................................................................13
Findings/Results.......................................................................................................................14
Part A...................................................................................................................................14
Part B....................................................................................................................................17
Limitation of the research........................................................................................................18
Discussion................................................................................................................................18
References...............................................................................................................................21

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Literature Review
In order to address the issue of gender pay gap in the airlines industry the following
three objectives are addressed separately and these are –
Evaluating the demographic of the airlines staff jobs
Gender pay gap is an issue that has been lingering in the society for so long. In recent
times, this globalised issue have gained a lot of attention since more and more individuals are
being vocal regarding it. Every industry is affected by this age old practice and the airlines
industry is neither an exception. Even though the awareness of gender pay gap has increased
among the general public all over the world, the results to tame the issue is still inconsistent.
According to the reports published by the Airline Pilots Association International trade union,
it is noted that only 5.18% female employees belong to the job role of commercial pilots
globally (BBC News 2018). In Britain, 4.77% of women population are in the job role of
airline pilots (Caa.co.uk 2018). The highlighting cause of gender pay gap in the society is the
system of segregation in distinctive industry and occupation between men and women
(Chamberlain 2016). The differentiation in pay throughout the economy based on gender has
been a culture that has been prevalent for a really long time. In a study conducted by Dr
Andrew Chamberlain, approximately 505,000 salary data shared by United States based
employees in Glassdoor were analysed. The results from it showed that the male population
earned nearly 24.1% more base pay than women on average. It has been also observed from
the census figures that only 26% of the female population belong to the higher role of job title
compared to men on average (Chamberlain 2016). In aviation industry majority of female
employees belong to the cabin crew department whereas the high ranking job roles are
dominated by the male population. A number of factors lie behind this varied demographic
figures and as a result of which contributes to the issue of gender pay gap.

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Existence of gender pay gap in various industries
It has been observed that the level of gender pay gap vary from industry to industry
(Card, Cardoso and Kline 2015). In the field of healthcare, media, transportation and
logistics, the intensity of gender pay gap is high compared to industries such as travel and
tourism, bar and food service, agriculture and forestry and others (Petroff 2018). Taking into
account the field of airlines or aviation industry, the recent reveal of reports related to gender
pay gap data showed some of the horrifying figures that further raises the issue of gender pay
gap. It has been observed from the reports that the high paying job roles in the airlines
industry such as the job role of pilots are dominated by the male population (Petroff 2018).
Whereas, the majority of female population are recruited in the job role of cabin crew that
have significantly low wage compared to the higher job roles.
According to Graf, Brown and Patten (2017), the system of gender pay gap have
narrowed down majorly since the year 1980 however, it is still persistent in the society
especially since the past fifteen years. Now, digging deeper into finding out the cause behind
this stable existence of gender pay gap in the society it has been found out that approximately
in every four in ten working women have reported to be suffering or experiencing gender
discrimination in the workplace (Graf, Brown and Patten 2017). Gender discrimination in the
workplace have been specified to be one of the highlighting cause behind the existence of
gender pay gap. Four in every ten working women have been experiencing discrimination in
the workplace whether in the form of comparatively less support from the senior leaders of
the company or been denied from a job, women have been suffering from this biased
execution of workplace culture for a really long time.
Addressing to the issue of gender pay gap, government have been actively taking
steps that would help tame this bias system that have been affecting the society for so long. In
account of the recent growing awareness regarding the issue of gender pay gap, the

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government in United Kingdom issued a regulation where the companies that comprises of
250 or more than 250 employees have to disclose the gender pay gap report publically. This
regulation issued by the national government of United Kingdom revealed some of the
shocking results that were concealed from a long time.
Analysing the current pay gap data in airlines industry
According to Topham (2018), the figures that were revealed witnessed some of the
worst data that evidently stated the existence of gender pay gap in the field of airlines
industry. Ryanair, an Ireland based airline company, reported a shocking figure of almost
72% gender pay gap which was reported to be the worst figure in the field of airline industry
(the Guardian 2018). The women workers were significantly paid lower wages on an average
than the male workers in the company. The reports further revealed that among 1182 UK
staff members, women staff were paid 67% lower on mean hourly pay. Similar to the
scenario of United States, in United Kingdom as well the main reason behind this inequality
in pay between men and women is that the top or highest job roles are occupied by the male
members of the society. While on the other hand, female members are recruited in lower
hierarchy of job role.
The reports further reveals that Ryanair’s senior management board and other high
job role positions are predominantly occupied by the male members of the population
(Theirishtimes.com 2018). In addition to this, among 554 UK-based pilots of Ryanair, a mere
number of 8 are only female pilots in the company. It has been observed that only one third
of female staff members belong to the high paid position of pilots whereas the rest of female
staffs are recruited in low paid cabin crew profession (McCarthy 2018). The figures that were
revealed shows some of the worst scenario of gender pay gap where top UK based airline
companies are sitting atop each other. Ryanair being the worst hit and British Airways
showing a much better figure with a mean score of 35% (Morris 2018). Comparing the two

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airline companies Ryanair and British Airways, the score of gender pay gap is for Ryanair
which is at 72% whereas for British Airways it was slightly better with a score of 35%. It was
observed that Ryanair had a significantly low number of female employees in the top job
positions whereas British Airways have an impressive amount of female employees in the
highest paid job roles. However, the problem of gender pay gap remains the same as a result
of the less number of women pilots and as a result of which women earning comparatively
less than men. It has been observed that in the field of airlines industry the number of women
pilots are comparatively low and this has been expanding the issue of gender pay gap. Even
though the relatively low number of female pilots are progressing day by day, the figures still
need to go through a long way in order to eradicate this issue.
The probable reasons for the existence of Gender pay gap
This significantly vast difference in the job role recruitment between men and women
is blamed upon the insufficient amount of female pilots in the aviation industry. The
company states that it is a stereotypical tendency of the aviation industry that more male
population opt to enter into the profession of pilots compared to female population. It has
been observed that this stereotypical tendency among the individuals is as a result of the
employment segregation on the basis of sex of an individual (Blau and Kahn 2017).
According to Blau and Kahn (2017) men are more likely to be in high-paying craft and
skilled positions compared to women who are more concentrated towards the lower
hierarchical job role. However, this tendency have changed over the period of time as more
women are joining the labour force that demands high skills and crafts. Still, the numbers are
lagging behind in the aviation industry and as a result of which the airline companies are
changing their recruitment strategies to hire more and more female members in the higher job
positions.