Sky reveals 17.5% pay disparity between men and women

Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) has revealed an average gender pay gap of 17.5% between its male and female employees in the UK.

The company, which owns Sky News, said the main reasons for the disparity were that there are more men in senior positions as well as in higher-paying areas such as tech and digital.

Sky's UK chief executive Stephen van Rooyen said the company had already started efforts to improve representation across different teams.

"Whilst we're seeing improvements, we know there is more we can do," he said.

Sky has set a series of targets to reduce the disparity, including an aim for 50/50 gender balance among the most senior roles by 2020.

Sky said its gender gap compares to a national average of 18.4%.

The figure compares the midpoint or "median" average in the salary range of men and women at the company.

Using the "mean", a different type of average including all employees, Sky's gender pay gap is 11.5%.

Previously, the BBC revealed a median pay gap of 9.3% while for ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) it is 11.9% and for Channel 4 the figure is 24.2%.