Gender Pay Gap - A Financial Services Summary

The UK Government introduced legislation in 2017 as part of their Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations that any company with more than 250 employees needs to report their gender pay gap by 30 March 2018. Here are some of the results they have reported as a mean average (mean average is taken by adding up all the salaries across the business and dividing this by the number of employees).

Barclays

Barclays across Barclays International, Barclays UK and Barclays Group have a gender pay gap reporting at 48.5%, 26% and 25.8% respectively. They have been addressing cultural change by implementing programmes such as their Women on Boards Programme and Women in IT Programme. They are also introducing and implementing unconscious bias training which will help address cultural change.

Gender diversity targets for female representation:

• Female representation on the board of directors to be at 33% by 2020 with 2017 reporting at 21%
• Female representation among the group executive committee and their direct reports to be at 33% by 2020 with 2017 reporting at 25%
• Female representation among directors and managing directors to reach 26% in 2018 with 2017 reporting at 23%

Santander

Santander reports a 35.3% mean gender pay gap and are driving new initiatives in response to this.

They are introducing the following to bridge the gender pay gap:

• 50% target for women in senior roles
• Employee based networks such as Women in Business
• 50/50 gender split shortlists for middle management and senior positions
• Unbiased training
• Implementing leadership development programmes for women

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank report a mean pay gap of 36.1%. To address this they are setting a target of 25% women to be in senior positions by the end of 2018 with their current run rate at 22.5%.

They are introducing the following to bridge the gender pay gap:

• Accomplished Top Leaders Advanced Strategy (ATLAS) which is a global sponsorship programme helping women progress into senior roles
• Acceleration programmes for high-potential female employees at vice president and director levels to develop further skill sets
• They currently offer enhanced maternity leave and enhanced shared parental leave. Managers are being trained to deal with these requests

PWC

PWC report a mean pay gap of 43.8% across all staff.

They have piloted and plan to implement the following:

• STEM programme which reaches out to the female students in schools and those from deprived backgrounds
• Recruitment practices promoting equal take up of graduates
• Introducing flexible working and part-time hires
• Encouraging male workers to take parental leave - this is currently only at 2%

RBS

RBS have a 37% mean gender pay gap. They were one of the first to sign the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter which is a commitment to work with the Treasury to ensure there is equal and fair remuneration across all sexes. 

RBS plan to have:

• 30% women in senior roles by 2020
• 50% women in senior roles by 2030

In 2017 RBS created a RBS Women Network which incorporated all of their groups: Focused Women, Women in Technology, Coutts Women’s Network, Compass and Business Women Can. This network aims to attract the best female talent to RBS.

Deloitte

Deloitte currently have a 43% female workforce and report a 18.2% mean gender pay gap across all staff. They explain their pay gap as being a reflection of male dominated director and partner roles with only 18% of partners being female.

Deloitte have introduced the following to bridge the gender pay gap:

• Ensuring recruitment processes are without bias
• A industry leading return to work programme
• Sponsorship programmes for senior women
• Female manager development programmes
• A working parents transition programme

KPMG

KPMG has a 22.3% mean gender pay gap across all staff.However, 47% of their staff are female.

What KPMG are doing to bridge the gap:

• Leading from the top with 31% of their ExCo being female and 43% of their board members being female
• From January 2018 all senior hires require a 50% female shortlist
• Supporting a diverse and inclusive work place such as flexible working and introducing their Empowering Parents Programme

EY

EY reports a mean gender pay gap of 19.7% across all staff. Similar to their Big Four peer this gap is explained by less females taking up senior positions from director level upwards.

EY have introduced the following to bridge the gender pay gap:

• Implementing policies making working parents gender neutral
• Flexible working practices
• Implementing 20 initiative programmes which include CareerWatch and BME leadership programmes

HSBC

HSBC report a 59% mean gender pay gap across all staff. This figure is relatively high and as a result they are currently addressing the issue with their Group CEO John Flint taking the following actions:

• They have signed up to 30% Club Campaign – 30% of women in senior roles
• HSBC to request 50% gender diverse shortlists for external hires
• Developing female talent to ensure strong female leadership sits in the pipeline
• Supporting families, flexibility and retaining female talent by promoting shared parental leave as well as coaching managers HSBC

Current statistics:

• 54% to 46% male/female ratio across all staff
• 77% to 23% male/female ratio across staff between GCB 0-3 (Global Career Band) GCB3 is director level equivalent at other banks with GCB0 being the highest
• 33% to 67% male to female ratio for less senior positions from GCB6-GCB8

Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group report a 42.7% mean gender pay gap which goes down to 32.8% for Lloyds Bank (when HBOS and C&G are taken out of the equation).

LBG have been recognised as a FTSE 100 company that promotes inclusion with dynamic working practices and have set a target of 40% senior roles to be filled by women. The bank has implemented programmes for agile hiring to ensure all shortlists are diverse. The percentage of women in senior positions has risen from 29% in 2013 to 34% in 2017.

Download the full PDF here.