The UK music industry assessed the pay gaps at major labels and tech firms, and in very unsurprising news, men are paid more, given better jobs, and gain bigger bonuses than women at most companies. Among the companies profiled, Live Nation and Warner Music had the dubious honor of the widest gaps, according to reports in multiple outlets.
According to MusicWeek, Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster showed a concerning pay gap. At Live Nation, the pay gap mean is a distressing 46 percent. In terms of bonuses on top of regular pay, men and women actually receive them at a fairly equitable rate – 32 percent men, 29 percent women. However, the bonus gap mean is 88 percent and median 36 percent.
As for Ticketmaster, the reported pay gap is a mean of 35 percent and 20 percent median. More men received more bonuses – 56 percent compared to 41 percent, and men also scored the top-paying roles; women only received 21 percent of the best roles in the company.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster aren’t the only companies to reveal these staggering pay gaps — AEG, Warner Music UK, Sony Music UK, and Universal Music UK also had significant gaps between genders, MusicWeek reports. Warner Music was alongside Live Nation, paying female employees almost half what they pay men. Their pay gap is the same – at a shocking 46 percent.
According to Complete Music Update, both Live Nation and Warner said that their pay gaps boil down to having fewer women in leadership roles and is something they are “committed to addressing.”
Warner Music’s EVP Human Resources Masha Osherova explained that the current gender pay gap numbers “make starkly clear the need for us to accelerate the pace of change within our company.” She said that although they’ve made progress, they’re “acutely aware” of how much work there is yet to be done.
“Rectifying this trend is an urgent priority,” Osherova said in a report to her company. “We continue to look forensically across our entire company, from many different perspectives, to activate the right diversity and inclusion strategies and to ensure mindful action is happening every day. Meaningful and sustained change will take time, serious investment and consistent focus. We’re committed to making the right changes and working towards closing this gap.”
Live Nation is the one company that is known to have outlined plans to fix their pay gap; in a report from 2017, the company said they are planning to create 17 additional new apprentice positions to “target gender balance throughout.” They also plan on tackling gender balance in leadership development.
Despite these select companies’ statistics, females are in fact stealing some of the lead roles in the music industry. Last year, Jo Charrington was announced co-president of Capitol Records UK and was named Businesswoman Of The Year at the Music Week Women In Music Awards in 2015. Julie Greenwald, Chairman/COO of Atlantic Records, was named the 2017 Executive of the Year. Other notable powerful women executives in the industry include Ticketmaster COO Amy Howe, Live Nation CFO Kathy Willard, Spotify’s Global head of content marketing Marian Dicus, and Def Jam Records Senior Promotion VP Nicki Farag.
A complete list of women executives in the industry via Billboard can be found here.
