Women in the UK in the banking and finance industry are paid 9.3 per cent less than men working in a similar position, according to PwC’s annual Women in Work Index report published in February.
The report assesses progress made towards achieving gender equality at work across 33 countries from the OECD. Considering the “gender pay penalty” by industry, the gap in banking and finance is higher than the 7 per cent average across all industries, but lower than in areas such as manufacturing.
The gender pay penalty differs from the gender pay gap indicator in that it takes into account differences between women and men with respect to other pay-determining factors such as qualification levels and occupational grade. This method of analysis enables PwC to work towards “like-for-like” comparisons.
Looking at the latest gender pay gap data reported by individual UK banks, the gap becomes even starker, reflecting the fact that more men are in senior positions.
HSBC’s largest UK entity, HSBC UK — with 18,384 employees — has a 30.3 per cent average gender pay gap. When the bank considers all UK “full pay relevant” employees, the average rises to 43.2 per cent.
Barclays has an average gender pay gap of 33.3 per cent for 2023 (a reduction from the 41.6 per cent reported in 2017).
Since 2017, UK public and private sector employers with 250 or more employees have been required to publish annual data on the gender pay gap within their organisations.
While the 2017 requirements have pushed companies to make some progress on the matter, the lifting of the UK bankers’ bonus cap in October is a risk to further progress, according to an analysis published this week by law firm Pinsent Masons. Firms need to carefully consider how they remunerate their employees in light of this, and ensure there is no gender bias in the policies that they put in place to address these issues, the report says.
Globally and across sectors, the gender gap for women in the workplace is far wider than previously thought, a World Bank Group report shows. The document, published this week, expands the scope of its analysis, adding two new indicators: safety from violence and access to childcare services.
When these measures are included, women on average enjoy just 64 per cent of the legal protections that men do, far fewer than the previous estimate of 77 per cent.
The analysis assesses the gap between legal reforms and actual outcomes for women in 190 economies. Although on paper laws imply that women enjoy roughly two-thirds the rights of men, countries on average have established less than 40 per cent of the systems needed for full implementation.
