The financial services sector has a reputation for being male dominated, and despite efforts to close the gap between men and women, the industry has still failed to remove what it perceived as gender bias. The national average gender pay gap in the UK is around 18%. Across financial services and banking however, the median difference is 31%.
Thanks to recent legislation, companies with over 250 employees are obliged to publish the gap in pay between male and female employees. This have revealed the vast difference still being seen across the industry. The Bank of England has recently reported a median pay gap of 24%, and figures released by HSBC show the difference in pay across the company is a staggering 59%.
The latest bank to publish figures is Goldman Sachs. Being the fifth largest bank in the US, the company’s UK branch employs over 6000 people. The firm has announced that its gender pay gap is 55%. The bonus pay gap is even higher at 72.2%. It’s still common in financial institutions for the number of men in higher pay bracket roles to substantially outnumber women.
The bank also reported that women account for 62.4% of jobs in the lowest pay quartile, compared to just 17% in the highest quartile. Like other banks, Goldman Sachs says it’s committed to closing the gap by using a number of measures, including implementing targets for women to account for half of new entry level jobs by 2021.
The company said in a statement: “As a global firm, the advancement of women in the workplace is top of mind for us. We have made progress over the years, yet we have significant work to do. In our last global partner class, we had our highest ever proportion of women promotes, but it is not enough. We hold ourselves accountable for creating a working environment in which all individuals can achieve their full potential and progress to the most senior levels of the firm.”
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