Women in Barclays International unit make half of what men earn

Women working in the investment-banking arm of Barclays are paid on average only half what their male colleagues are paid, according to figures published by the British bank on Thursday.

Barclays is the first big UK lender to publish its gender-pay-gap data since the UK government passed a law forcing all companies with more than 250 staff to do so by April.

The 48 per cent gap between the mean hourly pay of men and women in its Barclays International unit, which includes its corporate and investment bank, underlines how the upper echelons of City trading rooms remain male-dominated.

Barclays said there were more than four men to every woman in the highest 25 per cent of earners in its international division, but there were almost two women for every man in the lowest 25 per cent of earners in the unit.

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In June 2017 women made up 47 per cent of all staff at Barclays but only 15 per cent of its managing directors, the most senior grade below executive-committee level, which was up from 14 per cent a year earlier.

Barclays said it aimed to increase the percentage of women managing directors and directors from 23 per cent at the end of last year to 26 per cent by the end of this year. It also aims to have women represent a third of its board of directors and executive committee by 2020, up from 21 and 25 per cent at the end of last year respectively.

Focused on diversity

The bank said it was “confident that men and women across our organisation are paid equally for doing the same job”.

Jes Staley, its chief executive, told reporters: "We are very focused on diversity and that includes gender. Obviously we would like to get the gap down."

Citigroup, the US bank, last month said it had a gender pay gap of only 1 per cent among its employees in the US, UK and Germany – but that adjusted for factors including job function, level and geography.

Barclays’s gender pay gap was less pronounced in its UK division, which includes its main high-street bank, and its services unit, where women earned on average 26 per cent less per hour than their male colleagues.

Among the highest-paid quartile of staff at Barclays UK, 55 per cent are men and 45 per cent are women, while in the lowest-paid quartile there are almost three women to every man.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group said in December it would boost the pay of 800 employees by lifting its minimum salary to £17,000, or about €19,250, to reduce the gap between what it pays men and women.

The “challenger” bank included a section on its gender pay gap in its annual report for the first time on Tuesday, revealing that its male staff were on average paid 37 per cent more per hour than their women colleagues – well above the national average. – © The Financial Times Ltd 2018