Beware of the financial pay gap

The gap between men and women earning £1 million or more in Britain’s financial services sector is widening, according to a new study.

The gender pay gap for financial high-flyers stands at 91 per cent and has been getting wider, with 4,600 men in this income bracket and just 400 women, notes Fox & Partners, the employment law specialist, in today’s report.

The average gender pay gap for UK businesses generally is 9.7 per cent.

Caroline Field, partner at Fox & Partners, said: “The yawning gender pay gap at the top end of the financial services industry has been getting worse – not better.

“We do not fully understand the size of the gender pay gap. The data we have seen does not compare like for like. Partners and LLP members are not covered by the reporting requirements – it may be significantly higher in some sectors and at different levels than the reported figures show.” The firm said that the prevailing reason for the disparity in pay is a much higher proportion of men than women in senior roles in the UK financial services sector. Only 6 per cent of chief executives at financial services firms in the UK are women.

Recent research revealed that the average median gender pay gap in the financial services sector as a whole was 22 per cent, with the average bonus gap reaching some 46 per cent.