GENDER FAIRNESS

The owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank is to link gender diversity targets to executive remuneration after revealing yesterday that its overallaveragehourlypaygap between male and female staff is 37 per cent.

CYBG said in its annual report that the pay gap was “driven by fewer women being in senior roles”, with 63 per cent in the top pay quartile being men compared with 37 per cent female.

However, the bank said it was seeing “positive momentum” on the issue of gender diversity and pay parity, having recently agreed that the minimum salary for full-time staff will increase by 11 per cent to £17,000.

“This is a significant increase for the bank’s staff in lower grades and will help close the gender pay gap given the higher proportion of women in the bank’s lowest pay quartile,” the bank said.

It added that 30 per cent of its leadership team, 25 per cent of the board and 35 per cent of all senior managers were female. CYBG said it was committed to reaching a tar-

0 Clydesdale’s owner is launching a bi-annual audit of gender performance and reward

KATE GUTHRIE get of 40 per cent of females in senior management roles by 2020, with a long-term ambition to reach a 50:50 balance at senior management levels.

“The bank is also now including new measures in its longterm incentive plan for senior executives, which for the first time, links part of senior executives’ performance related pay to reaching higher levels of diversity at senior levels in the organisation,” it said.

Kate Guthrie, group human resources director, said that “inclusivity and diversity are at the heart of our business”. She said: “We are working hard to improve our gender pay gap and in addition to setting targets we are also making flexible working easier, investing in our talent and succession programmes and taking a sustainable and effective approach to our long-term recruitment planning.”

CYBG said that it was launching a twice-yearly equal pay audit, where gender distribution of performance, base pay, allowances and bonus paid to staff will be reviewed.

“We are also making flexible working easier, and investing in our talent.”