New report highlights continuing gender pay gap
September 7, 2009
A new report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has highlighted the ‘shocking disparity’ in the way reward is applied between men and women in the financial sector. EHRC carried out an inquiry on 50 leading companies in the City and found that the gender pay gap is a shocking 47% in the sector, taking both bonuses and salaries into account. The national average pay gap between men and women is 17%.
The chair of the EHRC, Trevor Phillips, has commented on the findings by demanding that the sector addresses this issue. Phillips was formerly the head of the Commission for Racial Equality and has come under attack from a number of commissioners for his leadership skills and style since taking the helm of the newly formed EHRC, which requires him to lead on equality in age, gender, religion and belief, sexual orientation, disability and human rights as well as race.
A key reason for the pay gap in the financial sector could be the age profile of its workers – with most employees in the City at an age where women are most likely to have childcare needs. Campaigners for gender equality have highlighted the need to support parents with childcare initiatives and other measures that will encourage women to continue to work and support their progression in their careers. The Government has highlighted that the Equality Bill will continue to highlight these issues with the introduction of compulsory gender pay gap reporting, which will be introduced within large (bigger than 250 employees) organisations initially.
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