A report from British pharmacy giant Lloydspharmacy has revealed that its female employees earn more than 30% less than males on average - but the "median" or mid-point pay gap is more like 3%.
Almost four out of five of the retailer's staff are female, with spokesperson Hilary Stables from parent company Celesio UK saying the reasons for the disparity are "complex".
She said that at the time the data was gathered there were more men in senior positions within the Lloydspharmacy head office, while many of the company's pharmacies employ a lot of part-time females.
The report also breaks down the Lloydspharmacy staff into "retail based roles" and "professional and management roles" which includes pharmacists and managers.
In the professional and management division the mean pay gap was 13%, but females in retail-based roles earnt 3% more than their male counterparts on average.
Stables stressed that there was no significant difference between hourly pay rates of male and female employees within the Lloydspharmacy retail network.
"Although we realise that there is a difference between male and female pay, we do not believe there is a significant gender pay gap issue," she said.
A new performance-based pay structure should "further narrow the gaps between gender pay," the company added.
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