Female staff at HSBC in Britain receive 60% less than men in hourly earnings, according to a recent gender pay gap report.
The hourly earnings gap increased from a 59% disparity in 2017.
The main reason for the gap comes down to a smaller proportion of women working higher-paid positions in the company. Women only account for 23% of the bank’s British senior leadership whilst two-thirds of junior jobs are carried out by women.
Over half of HSBC’s workforce (54%) in the UK is female.
Elaine Arden, HSBC’s group head of human resources, said: “These issues are a challenge for our industry.”
“We recognise that that there is more work to do to address our gender balance at senior levels.”
“If we identify any pay differences between men and women in similar roles, which cannot be explained by reasons such as performance/behaviour rating or experience, we make appropriate adjustments,” Elaine Arden added.
The median pay gap at HSBC is smaller, at 29%, more than double the 14.2% median pay gap difference reported by Barclays for its UK retail banking operations for 2017, but lower than the disparity at Royal Bank of Scotland (36.5%) and Lloyds Banking Group (32.8%).
HSBC Bank Plc disclosed a mean gender bonus gap of 86 percent.
By 2020 the bank is aiming for women to account for 30% of senior roles and it has expressed interest in creating more opportunities to mentor women into higher-paid global banking and markets roles. The bank will also start requiring “gender diverse shortlists” for external hires.
All UK firms with over 250 employees have to report their gender pay gap to the government by 4 April.
Interesting related article: “What is income inequality?”