What is the nature of our pay gaps?
The gender pay gaps reported for our Irish workforce in this report are largely based on representation meaning more men are in senior, higher paid positions.
At Boston Scientific, equal pay for equal work is rooted in our values and is foundational to fostering an inclusive workplace. Since 2017, we have regularly completed a company-wide salary third-party analysis to ensure all employees are paid fairly and equitably. In 2023, we again reported no statistically significant pay disparity for 99% or greater of our employees across gender globally, and across all Boston Scientific employees in Ireland.
Paying employees fairly and competitively are cornerstones of our long-standing global compensation planning practices. Sustaining market competitiveness and pay equity requires constant measurement and attention, so we regularly conduct comprehensive audits, analyses and company-wide benchmarking of salaries to identify and eliminate disparities. Equal pay alone is not enough. We continue to educate our people and update our policies to address biases, support equitable career opportunities for all employees, and foster a culture where everyone feels valued and included.
How is Boston Scientific addressing gender pay gaps?
We are committed to taking action to improve the balance of men and women in senior leadership roles, which in turn, should close the gap on gender pay imbalances in our organisation.
Diversity, equity and inclusion in our organisation means engaging people of all cultures, ethnicities, gender identities, backgrounds, experiences, orientations and beliefs, and empowering all to share their ideas and perspectives. Focusing on innovation and enabling career development upholds our core values. It can lead to our greatest breakthroughs for patients around the world.
In 2017, Chairman and CEO Mike Mahoney was among the first of 150 CEOs of the world’s leading companies to sign the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion Pledge, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Leaders who sign the pledge commit to continuing to make their workplaces a trusting environment where complex and sometimes difficult conversations about diversity and inclusion can occur.
Since 2018, we’ve set and shared goals focused on increasing opportunities for multicultural employees and women in leadership. Our 3Up by 2023 goals served to inspire and guide our DE&I strategy to increase opportunities for greater representation of women and multicultural talent at all levels, including our leadership pipeline.
In 2023, we developed a future-focused career framework that illustrates how employees can advance at Boston Scientific. This framework outlines clear paths for career progression and informs the measurement of our DE&I goals and progress into the future.
In Ireland, as across the company, we have several initiatives in place aimed at encouraging and supporting more women to apply for and succeed in leadership positions. For example,
- The company introduced manager training to strengthen coaching and development of all employees and expanded our education on workforce inclusion. This includes unconscious bias training for all our people leaders to help them recognise and minimise bias blind spots and engage in more open and honest conversations with employees.
- Boston Scientific continues to build a pipeline of women through targeted development programmes, succession planning, diversity recruiting and mandatory consideration of a pool of diverse candidates for open leadership roles. We run dedicated sponsorship programmes for women, including the EXCELerate Programme, and mentoring systems for women run across Galway, Cork and Clonmel.
- Hiring managers base pay decisions on technical and leadership competencies to mitigate potential gender pay inequalities for both men and women.
- We strive for a gender balanced slate for candidate pools, and to ensure women represent 50 percent of candidates on all interview panels.
- Boston Scientific sponsors employee resource groups that foster a diverse and inclusive work environment. This includes EmpowHER network, which is aimed at supporting the empowerment and advancement of women. Active in each of our Irish sites – Galway, Cork and Clonmel – the network provides opportunities that help foster valuable connections. It organises employee events and engagement activities with the aim of advocating for women as well as engaging allies and the broader community.
- The company offers a variety of benefits and services to support life/work integration, including sabbaticals, and promotes a culture of flexibility about where and when employees perform their work. Our three sites in Ireland support hybrid working arrangements that grant colleagues where possible the flexibility to work from home up to two days per week.
- Boston Scientific in Ireland encourages women who are managers to build their external networks through participating in groups such as the American Chamber of Commerce network for women.