Sadly, as an industry which has endless opportunity for men and women, there are still major hurdles to overcome.
Pay gaps, in particular, are one of the biggest industry-wide issues which seem to be cropping up in every area of the globe.
The latest company to be outed for its huge gender pay disparity is UK-based travel company Tui, formerly Thomson Airways.
According to new figures on pay gaps in the country, women working at Tui were making on average 56.9 per cent less than men when it came to hourly pay.
While Tui has 870 pilots earning an average of £111,683, 95 per cent of them are men.
This contrasts the cabin crew, where 80 per cent are women, who are paid an average of £26,272.
However, according to the Guardian UK, women make up 62 per cent of its 3,308 head office staff, and yet, men are more likely to hold the better-paid roles in senior management, engineering or technology.
Speaking about the disparity, the company pinned the pay gap down to the low representation of women in high paying roles such as pilots, engineering tech, and management.
“We know that our gender pay gap is not an equal pay issue, rather a lack of representation in specific roles,” Tui said in its gender pay gap report for its UK & Ireland business.
“We remain committed to raising awareness within the retail and airline industry on all aspects of diversity and inclusion, as well as effecting change in our own business,” a TUI spokesman said.
Tui also added it was seeking an “inclusive and diverse workforce in all areas of our business” and is currently looking for answers on how to tackle the issue.
In November, Travel Weekly looked at the gender pay gap in travel and found that sadly, little changes had been made in the last decade.
At the time, we looked at the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, which requires Australian private companies with more than 100 staff to report on employees’ salaries.
Accordingly, there were 16 tour and travel companies who were required to declare their gender equity data.
The results weren’t great.
Yes, we knew the travel industry was female dominated; the total figure is 65.3 per cent women.
And yet, in executive positions the same proportion, 66 per cent, are males. Something is happening with the female transition from middle to high-level executive roles.
There was also a gender pay gap of 24.1 per cent across the board. That means women are not being paid for at least one day of work a week.
