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More sexism in the City

By Elizabeth Heathcote on Monday 7 September 2009

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Marie Claire news: Career woman

Men working in the City receive bonuses on average five times as high as those paid to their female colleagues, according to a survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The EHRC described this as a "shocking disparity". It also discovered that eight out of 10 women starting new jobs in the financial sector earn less than men, and that women's average basic salary, before bonuses, is 39 per cent lower.

The Commission surveyed 44 major financial companies, which between them employ almost a quarter of the sector's workers.

Fewer than half the companies the EHRC talked to had procedures in place to tackle the pay gap. This is despite previous figures showing that women working full time in the financial sector earned less than half the average gross annual salary of men in the sector. In the economy as a whole, the pay gap is 28 per cent, according to the Guardian.

The age of finance sector workers is thought to be a factor. Most workers in the sector are aged 25-39, when women are most likely to have childcare responsibilities.

Trevor Phillips, chair of the EHRC, is clear that action must be taken. "The financial sector has the potential to play a central role in Britain's recovery," he said. "But it has to address this shocking disparity of rewards. For business to thrive in the new economy it simply can't afford to recruit and reward in the way it has done in the past."

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