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LONDON – The heads of Britain’s largest financial services firms earn on average 66% less than their male counterparts, research showed Monday, despite an increase in the number of women on the boards of directors of UK companies. companies in recent years.
Female board members earned 247,100 pounds ($ 349,720) on average per year, while men earned 722,300 pounds, according to the study by the law firm Fox & Partners, which examined pay gaps at financial firms that fall between the 350 largest listed companies in the country.
“Despite having higher levels of diversity at the more junior levels, financial services companies are still struggling to reflect that shift at the senior executive level,” said Catriona Watt, partner at Fox & Partners.
“To see long-term change, companies must commit to taking steps that will lead to more women moving up the ranks, taking on senior executive positions and closing the pay gap,” it said in a statement.
The number of women on FTSE 350 boards of directors has increased 50% in the past five years, reaching 1,026 in 2020, according to the Hampton-Alexander Review, an independent body that aims to advance gender diversity on boards. by FTSE.
More than a third of board seats are now held by women as well, Review magazine said last week, hitting a target that had been set for the end of 2020.
However, there are disparities, even at the top. The Fox & Partners study said that female directors of FTSE 350 financial services firms held primarily non-executive positions, which meant they were paid less and had fewer responsibilities than men.
“These shocking numbers show that the gender pay gap is thriving,” said Felicia Willow, director of the women’s rights group Fawcett Society, who was not involved in the report.
“There are not enough women in the highest positions, and too often those who have made it are paid less than men.”
A year ago, Britain suspended the need for companies to report on the gender pay gap in their workforce due to the coronavirus pandemic, a step the government said would not derail attempts to pay men and women in a manner fair.
Since 2017, the government has required employers with more than 250 employees to submit gender pay gap figures each year in an attempt to reduce pay disparities.
The gap narrowed last year, with men earning 15.5% more than women on average, up from 17.4% in 2019, according to official data.
Companies will now have until October 5 to report on wage gaps, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. – Thomson Reuters Foundation
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