Gender Pay Gap Report 2025

Introduction

At WaterWipes™, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace where all employees are valued and rewarded fairly. This Gender Pay Gap Report reflects our ongoing efforts to understand and address disparities in pay between men and women across our organisation. By analysing the data, we aim to identify areas for improvement, promote transparency and take meaningful action to close the gap. We recognise that achieving gender pay equity is not only a legal obligation but a vital step toward building a more diverse and successful company

Overview Mean Gender Pay Gap

  • Gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly wage of men and women across the workforce, without differentiation for job, grade or other business factors that can influence pay.
  • This year WaterWipes™ (Ireland) is reporting a narrow mean gender pay gap of 1.25%.
  • The gender pay gap is considered statistically insignificant and indicates that men and women are paid almost equally on average. Similarly, last year’s gender pay gap was also not significant, standing at -1.09%.
  • This narrow gap is influenced by many factors, including our structured salary framework in place within our Production & Warehouse operations, which represent a significant proportion of our workforce in Ireland.
  • Work is ongoing to extend a similar salary framework across the rest of the organisation, ensuring consistency and fairness in pay practices company-wide.
  • Currently, approximately 41% of our workforce are women, compared to 59% men.

Median hourly gender pay gap

  • The median gender pay gap for this reporting year is -10.13%, compared with -10.47% last year. This means that the median hourly rate for female employees is higher than that of male employees.
  • As in previous years, this difference is primarily due to the concentration of male employees in entry-level and operational roles, which typically fall within the lower pay percentiles. This trend appears to reflect broader gender norms in job preferences and the specific skills associated with these roles.
  • Differences in median pay are influenced by factors such as length of service-related salary progression and variations in entry-level salaries, which can depend on experience and specialist skills.
  • For part-time employees, a gender pay gap cannot be calculated as there are currently no male employees working part-time within the organisation.
  • For temporary employees, the median gender pay gap is -61.31%, indicating that the median hourly rate for female temporary employees is significantly higher than that of their male counterparts. This is explained by the distribution of job families among temporary roles: of the nine females in temporary positions, the majority hold Specialist or Management roles, whereas the eleven males in temporary roles are primarily in Core roles, mainly within production, which are lower paid.

Gender Distribution by Pay Quartiles

There are less female employees to male employee across three of the four quartile ranges within WaterWipes™. Within the "lower" and "lower middle" quartiles, the majority of roles are production operatives and this is heavily male dominated on day and night rotating shift patterns.

Regarding the "upper middle" quartile, this group comprises of two main job families - Specialist & Management. This group has the most evenly distribution between males and females.

In the "Upper" pay quartile, consists of Management, Vice President & Leadership roles. There was a higher representation of males compared with females in this quartile on the snapshot date.

Pay & Bonus Gap 

Bonus is part of our Total Rewards programme, ‘Life’. All permanent roles, other than those in production & warehouse, are eligible for inclusion in our annual bonus scheme, subject to eligibility criteria (which applies equally to men and women). Bonus percentages employees are eligible to receive are linked to their job category with a clear framework and policy in place. Additionally in 2025 all employees were eligible for a once off bonus payment linked to length of service. This has impacted on our bonus gap in some categories, where longer serving employees received higher bonuses. 

Bonus Recipient

87.6% of women v 88.5% of men received a bonus this year, compared with 87.5% of women and 88.33% of men last year. The number of women this year v last year receiving a bonus payment has increased by 13%. The mean bonus this year is -4.86% this year compared with -8.62% last year, in favour of women.

The gap has narrowed compared with both last year and the year prior. The largest gender pay gap in terms of bonuses can be seen in both the Specialist and Leadership categories.

The gender pay gap in the Leadership category can be attributed to the fact that the CEO role, where the largest bonus would be seen, is filled by a male.

The gap at Specialist level can be attributed to a higher proportion of long serving males v females in this category impacting on the once off bonus linked to service.

We also see a substantial number of female new joiners in the Specialist category during the period, who would not have been eligible for a bonus during that reporting period, which has impacted our bonus gap for that category.

Benefit-in-Kind Gap

Benefits in Kind refer to non-cash benefits provided to employees. In WaterWipes™ this predominantly relates to health insurance. This benefit is available to all employees in Ireland.

57.2% of females v 43.5% of males received BIK this year. This compares with last year’s figures of 28.9% of females v 43.33% of males receiving BIK. The gap has not only narrowed but more females now receive BIK than males.

This can be explained by a higher proportion of females v males joining the organisation during the reporting period, the vast majority of which also chose to join our healthcare plan.

Summary Analysis

While the 1.25% gender pay gap reflects a strong foundation of fairness and transparency as it is essentially near parity, WaterWipes™’ focus now is to sustain this progress by deepening representation at all levels, strengthening our talent pipeline and ensuring every colleague regardless of gender has equal opportunity to grow and progress at WaterWipes™. 

We are committed to equity, representation at senior levels, maintaining transparency and embed sustainable practices that maintain this gap and promote meaningful inclusion.
 

A gap this small in WaterWipes™ reflects:

  • Our strong pay equity practices • Our consistent application of job evaluation and salary structures
  • Our commitment to balanced representation in key roles and levels
  • Effective performance and promotion processes that are broadly equitable
  • Our commitment to develop female representation in future leadership pipelines and ensure succession planning.

Strategic Recommendations & Key Actions

1. Protect Pay Equity through Governance

  • Continue annual gender pay analysis
  • Conduct “equal pay for equal work” audits to ensure parity by job level and function
  • Maintain transparent pay and promotion processes supported by clear job architecture frameworks 

2. Strengthen Representation at Senior Levels

  • Review gender balance in senior leadership, executive, and higher-paying roles
  • Implement succession planning with gender balance goals
  • Hiring practices with a diverse talent slate
  • Offer targeted development or sponsorship for high-potential women in mid to senior levels
  • Introduce coaching and mentoring circles for progressing senior female leaders 

3. Embed Equity into Performance and Reward

  • Monitor performance rating distributions by gender to ensure no systemic bias
  • Review bonus and variable pay outcomes for equity
  • Continue to communicate our Reward Philosophy (fair, transparent, performance-linked)

4. Support Career Continuity and Flexibility

  • Commitment to hybrid working
  • Maintain robust family leaves and return-to-work supports
  • Strengthen flexible work policies that allow career growth and visibility while accommodating personal needs
  • Promote visible role models who have advanced through flexible pathways

5. Communicate and Celebrate

  • Publish the 1.2% result as a positive indicator of fairness and progress and balance it with commitments to continuous improvement
  • Reinforce employer brand positioning  “We are proud of our equity, we are committed to deepening representation at all levels”
  • Reinforce that gender equity is part of broader inclusion and diversity goals, which is linked to our ESG framework