Major banks such as HSBC (HSBA.L), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) have reported a concerning trend – the gender pay gap has widened in 2022, according to Reuters’ review of the data.
Moreover, the analysis revealed a troubling disparity between Black and white employees, especially in the banks that disclosed their pay gaps based on ethnicity.
The latest figures underscore the significant challenges financial institutions still face in closing the gap in pay equity, despite increasing pressure from regulators and investors worldwide to address the issue.
British companies with over 250 employees were required to reveal the disparity between the salaries and bonuses of their male and female staff by April 4 for the year ending in April 2022. Some large financial firms also disclosed their ethnicity pay data for the same period.
HSBC, which was already known for having one of the highest gender pay gaps among banks in Britain, reported a larger mean average difference for the year, stating that women were paid 45.2% less than men. This figure had increased from 44.9% in the previous year.
Goldman Sachs’ British division, a major player in Wall Street, saw its gender pay gap increase to 53.2%, which was the largest among the top finance employers analyzed by Reuters. This figure had risen from 51.3% in the previous year. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s UK arm witnessed its gap widen to 40.8% from 40.5%, and Standard Chartered’s gap increased from 27% to 29%.
All four banks acknowledged that the pay gap reflected the low representation of women in leadership positions and that they were implementing measures to tackle this issue. In a memo to staff, Richard Gnodde, CEO of Goldman Sachs International, expressed his commitment to addressing the situation, stating that it would take time to bring about change.
Nonetheless, most of the major finance companies made some progress in reducing their gender pay gaps, according to their disclosures. The average gender pay gap across 20 leading employers dropped to 30.1% in 2022, compared to 31.7% in the previous year.
