Schroders has published its gender pay gap findings ahead of the government regulations due to take effect from April.
The asset management firm reported a pay gap of 31 per cent between male and female salaries based on hourly earnings rate. The data also revealed that bonuses for male staff exceeded that of female staff on average by 66 per cent.
Schroders said the figures may be misleading due to the lower proportion of women represented in senior management. The proportion of women to men in the top quartile of employees based on hourly fixed pay is 21 to 79 per cent, while the bottom quartile has 59 females to 41 per cent males.
“Our analysis of comparable roles shows we reward men and women fairly for similar work and that the gap reflects the lower representation of women at senior levels within the organisation,” a statement said.
The company’s global workforce, operating in 27 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East, consists of 59 per cent male workers. The proportion of female to male staff that received variable pay is 95 per cent to 96 per cent.
Lord Howard of Penrith, chairman of the remuneration committee at Schroders, said: “As one of the first signatories of the Women in Finance Charter in the UK, we are committed to increasing the representation of women within senior management.
“We targeted 30 per cent representation by 2019. Having made significant progress, moving from 25 per cent at the end of 2015 to 29 per cent this year, we have increased our target to 33 per cent.
“This year we have disclosed gender pay gap data for the first time, in chapter Annual report on remuneration, in advance of UK disclosure rules coming into effect in April 2017.”
From next week Wednesday, 5 April, UK employers with more than 250 staff will be required to publish the mean and median hourly rate of pay for male and female workers.
The regulations will require employers to gather earnings data from 5 April 2017 and publish the data by 4 April 2018. Schroders intends to publish the UK data in due course.
Schroders said: “We are committed to striving for gender equality across our business. Our decision to publish this data is a tangible demonstration of this commitment.”
