Pay gap cut in UK for women execs

Top female executives in the U.K. are nearing their male colleagues in pay since new rules for reporting compensation went into effect, yet the gap remains wider than the global average.

British women in senior executive positions received 12 percent less than male counterparts as of September, compared with a 22 percent deficit in March, according to a worldwide analysis by executive search firm Leathwaite. The pay gap for upper managers in the rest of the world was also roughly halved in the same period, to 8.7 percent.

U.K. firms are responding to a new law that since April has compelled those with at least 250 employees to report average differences between men’s and women’s hourly and bonus pay.

Beyond senior executives, the gender pay gap in Britain has shrunk from 18.6 percent last year to 17.9 percent among all types of employees, the U.K. Office for National Statistics reported last month.