Woodie’s Gender Pay Gap Report 2025
About Woodie’s
Woodie’s is Ireland’s leading retailer in the DIY, Home, and Garden sector, operating 35 stores nationwide alongside a robust online presence. We provide communities across Ireland with an extensive range of products, including DIY essentials, paints, homewares, gardening supplies, and fitted kitchens. With a portfolio of over 30,000 products, Woodie’s has established a reputation for delivering quality and variety to meet the needs of every home.
Our organisation employs approximately 1,500 colleagues across our store network and Support Office. We are proud to have achieved an almost equal gender representation within our workforce, with 48% female and 52% male employees on the snapshot date. Females represent 57% of our Executive Leadership Team, demonstrating our commitment to diversity and inclusion across our leadership and wider teams.
Woodie’s Workforce
A message from Ciara Turner
At Woodie’s, our mission is to help customers love where they live. We also want our colleagues to feel the same way about working here at Woodie’s, and we remain committed to being a great place to work.
As part of this commitment, we are pleased to share our gender pay gap results, which reflect our ongoing efforts to promote gender balance and fair equitable remuneration practices across our business. Our employee base is close to gender balanced and over the past number of years, we have made further progress in narrowing the gender pay gap.
Our most recent results show that the mean gender pay gap has narrowed and is now in favour of women but continues to reflect strong representation and advancement for all colleagues across our organisation. These positive trends are the result of deliberate actions, including new recruitment practices, development initiatives, and a focus on supporting career progression for all colleagues. We recognise that achieving gender balance across the organisation is an ongoing journey. We also remain committed to regularly reviewing our policies and practices, listening to our colleagues, and acting to further strengthen our inclusive culture.
Ciara Turner HR Director
We are proud to be recognised within the Top 75 Best Workplaces in Europe by Great Places to Work, and as an official Best Workplace for Females. We are also accredited as Investors in Diversity at Gold Standard by the Irish Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.
In 2025 we revisited and refreshed our company values which are at the heart of our culture. These values underpin our approach to inclusion and reflect our determination to create a workplace where all colleagues have the opportunity to thrive. As a Leadership Team we remain committed to continually working to deliver a diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation.
Executive summary
A gender pay gap refers to the disparity between the average hourly pay and bonuses earned by men and those earned by females across an organisation. It differs from equal pay, which ensures that men and females receive the same salary for performing identical, similar, or equivalent work. In this report, we examine the gender pay gap results here at Woodie’s.
Over the past number of years, Woodie’s has made noteworthy progress in closing the gender pay gap and advancing pay equity across our organisation. Our latest results show a mean gender pay gap of -0.46%, meaning women are now paid slightly more on average than men, a reversal from last year’s gap of 2.2% in favour of men. The median gender pay gap is -3.74%, which is also in favour of women, with a slight shift from -4.44% last year. These results demonstrate continued progress toward fair and equitable pay at Woodie’s and suggest that our commitment to pay equity is having a positive impact.
Our progress is the result of a gender-neutral approach to total reward, combined with targeted learning and development initiatives, transparent career pathways, and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.
We have focused on supporting the advancement of all colleagues, ensuring fair and equitable opportunities for career growth and reward. To support colleagues at every stage of their leadership journey, we have developed our leadership development offering with tailored programmes for each level across the organisation. The Leap programme is designed for colleagues up to Team Leader level, Elevate supports middle management, and Rise is focused on senior management at Woodie’s. This approach ensures that development opportunities are accessible and relevant to all colleagues, regardless of their role or career stage.
Gender Pay Gap results
While this demonstrates ongoing progress, there continues to be a slight under-representation of females in our senior and middle management cohorts. Addressing this minor imbalance remains a priority for our diversity and inclusion strategy in 2026.
Our Gender Pay Gap results for 2025
Mean gender pay gap
Average for men compared to average for females.
Median gender pay gap
The midpoint number of the range of remuneration figures for men compared to the midpoint remuneration figure for females.
Our Gender Pay Gap results for 2025
Quartile bands
% split of earnings by male and female for each quartile band
Benefit in kind
% of males and females that received benefit in kind
Bonus
% of males and females that received bonus
The action we are taking
Our goal is not just to narrow the gender pay gap but to achieve pay parity by reaching a gap of zero, ensuring equal average pay for all colleagues regardless of gender. In last year’s Gender Pay Gap report, we outlined our ambitions in three key areas. Below is an update of our progress on each.
1. Inclusive recruitment practices
• We have undertaken a thorough review of our reward structures. We are also conducting benchmarking exercises to ensure our pay practices are competitive and aligned with the upcoming pay transparency directive.
• We enhanced our centralised recruitment approach by investing in dedicated Talent Acquisition resource. This initiative, supported by data analytics, is designed to further strengthen our ability to monitor and improve workforce diversity across the organisation.
2. Gender neutral development opportunities
• We continued our Seeds for Success programme with Retail Ireland Skillsnet, achieving 54% female participation. Our apprenticeship programme for aspiring managers also maintained close to 50% female representation, supporting our goal of delivering 30,000 training hours across all levels of the organisation.
• We have conducted biannual talent reviews and succession planning with a focus on diversity and equal advancement opportunities.
• We have expanded our leadership development programmes to support career progression for all colleagues.
3. Flexible work & family support
• We have been trialling a 9-day fortnight flexible working model, allowing colleagues an extra day off every two weeks.
• We have reviewed our family leave policies to ensure they are supportive and relevant. Where possible, we have also maintained flexible working arrangements, such as flexible start and finish times and a hybrid working model for eligible roles.
In 2026 we plan to focus on four key themes
1. Leadership & career development
• Continue with our Leadership Ecosystem and the array of learning and development programmes in place ensuring access for all genders across Woodie’s.
• Encourage gender balance in management and senior management roles by reviewing recruitment and succession planning and promoting transparent career pathways that support internal mobility.
2. Diversity & inclusion
• Develop and implement an enhanced Diversity and Inclusion strategy with measurable goals in 2026 to include Diversity and Inclusion training.
• Maintain our Investors in Diversity at Gold Standard by the Irish Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.
3. Employer brand & recruitment
• Increase awareness of Woodie’s as an employer of choice attracting a broader range of candidates as well as defining our Employer Value proposition.
• Conduct a review of our job advertisements to ensure they are aligned with our commitments and endeavour to have diverse interview panels.
4. Pay equity & transparency
• Review and monitor pay equity in preparation for the Pay Transparency Directive.
• Prepare for the upcoming Pay Transparency Directive by aligning our processes with new legal requirements.
