In recent years, the issue of the gender pay gap has dominated conversations around the world and across various industries. Unfortunately, research has shown that women are still largely underpaid in comparison to their male counterparts.
The female professionals working in the casino industry also suffer from lower pay, and today we are going to examine the gender pay gap in the business.
Still, all is not bleak. For example, with the numerous live casino options available right now, many women with children have found stable employment that pays fair wages and provides flexible working hours that consequently allow them to balance work and motherhood.
Before we delve deeper into exploring the reasons and possible solutions to the gender pay gap, we should look into the figures that show the payment disparity between male and female employees in the casino industry.
For the purpose of this article, we will use data concerning the British casino industry. The British government demands companies with more than 250 employees to collect and share gender pay data which helps illustrate the problem and hopefully solve it.
Sadly, it seems like the casino industry is experiencing quite the troublesome gender pay gap. Among all full-time employees in the UK for all industries, the gender pay gap was 7.7% in 2023, but the gender pay gap in the casino industry tends to be higher.
Unfortunately, there is no singular gender pay report to encompass the whole casino industry in the country, so we will instead give you information about some of the big gambling companies.
Playtech, a software developer of casino games, reported a mean gender pay gap of 22.1%, a median gender pay gap of 22.2% and a median gender bonus gap of 20% for 2023. Entain, an international casino and sports betting company owning many gambling sites, reported a mean gender pay gap of 15.9%, a median gender pay gap of 4%, and a median bonus pay gap of 44.4%, with only 37% of top-paid positions going to women.
Metropolitan Gaming, a company which operates casinos across the UK and Egypt, reported a mean gender pay gap of 13.6%, a median gender pay gap of 4.2%, and a mean bonus gap of 79%, with the proportion of 70.40% male and 29.60% female employees in the upper salary quartile.
The Hippodrome Casino, one of the most exclusive gaming venues in the capital, reported a mean gender pay gap of 17.8%, a median gender pay gap of 8.9%, yet interestingly, a mean gender bonus gap of -216.7%.
While all of these companies report lower figures than previous years, much should still be done to close the pay gap once and for all.
There are many reasons behind the existing gender pay gap. Naturally, it all starts with the fact that women were not allowed to pursue professional careers for the most of human history, so it is going to take time for women to firmly establish themselves in various industries.
Another reason for the pay disparity comes from the type of employment men and women choose. Female-dominated industries like teaching are much lower paid than male-dominated ones like engineering.
Additionally, women might choose part-time rather than full-time employment, not because they want to, but because they have to if they are taking care of children.
Indeed, motherhood is one of the main reasons for the gender pay gap. Some countries like the United States have no federal paid maternity leave which results in women exiting the workforce and then struggling to find employment later due to resume gaps.
On the other hand, a long maternity leave also negatively impacts female workers as they might miss on promotions, or even worse, might not be employed at all if the employer doesn’t want to pay maternity leave or deal with the hassle of replacing a mother on leave.
Unfortunately, many companies are biased against women, especially those with children. They are often perceived as a liability and less reliable than male workers because they take on more childrearing responsibilities (resulting in maternity leaves and/or sick leaves) even when they have a male partner.
Regarding the top positions, women, as already said, often struggle with career progression, but not always because they have children, sometimes it is literally because they are women. The office culture of the “boys club” is alive and well, meaning that male employers prefer surrounding themselves with other men at the helm.
The casino industry is making progress in terms of bridging the pay gap between men and women, but there’s more to be desired.
Gambling companies such as Playtech contribute their progression towards closing the gap on HR initiatives which educate their workforce on the gender pay gap and intend to remove existing biases.
Such initiatives likely exist in many other firms in the casino industry, yet they are only the beginning.
Concerning more practical solutions, companies can look into ways to support working mothers by offering them flexible working hours or a hybrid working model. Luckily, employers in the online casino industry are already doing that, with many of them allowing for work from home and choosing one’s own working hours.
Perhaps the biggest issue that widens the gender pay gap and ensures it remains the same, is the lack of female professionals at the top. Entain recognises this issue and promises to “appoint, promote and retain women in the most senior roles”.
Once there are more women in high positions in the casino industry, not only the gender pay gap would start closing more rapidly, but bias would decrease.