Wall Street firms – long known as boys’ clubs – largely outweighed the national average, as mostly male bankers were well paid for long hours and frequent travel that often culminated in deals that reaped millions of dollars in fees and bonuses.
In fact, when bonuses are excluded, the gap shrunk to 25.1 per cent at Morgan Stanley, 35.1 per cent at UBS, 33.8 per cent at Barrenjoey and 32.7 per cent at BofA.
Not just banks
Stockbrokers and wealth managers, too, recorded wide gaps in gender-based pay because they were dominated by men who get the lion’s share of bonuses.
Canaccord Genuity lodged a median base pay gap of 12.9 per cent, but this ballooned to 55 per cent on a total pay basis, while rival stockbroker Euroz Hartley recorded a 24 per cent gap and 61.9 per cent gap for total pay.
Others like Ord Minnett went from -4.9 per cent on base pay to 43.4 per cent total pay, and LGT Crestone recorded 36.5 per cent and 42.5 per cent.
Jarden’s co-chief executive, Sarah Rennie, said the gender pay gap persisted “due to the under-representation of women in senior positions, which is an industry-wide issue”.
“We are actively working to address this imbalance, but we recognise it is going to take time and effort to see material positive change,” Ms Rennie said.
Citi, which logged a 25.1 per cent gap in base pay and 29 per cent total pay gap, acknowledged the need to bridge the divide and elevate more women to better-paying jobs.
“A significant contributor to the gender pay gap is the under-representation of women in higher-paying, senior and client-facing roles at Citi and throughout our industry,” said Citi Australia’s CEO Mark Woodruff. “There is more to be done to reduce this gap”.
UBS’ joint country head and chief operating officer for Australasia Nick Hughes said its gender pay gap would only “be narrowed by increasing the number of women in leadership and higher-paying roles”.
“Our execution strategy is focused around three simple actions: hire more women, retain more women and promote more women,” Mr Hughes said.
The country’s gender pay gap was different to the subject of equal pay, said Goldman Sachs Australia CEO Simon Rothery. It did not adjust for seniority, part-time roles, or the type of job. “Equal pay, on the other hand, is the practice of paying men and women performing similar roles in a similar way – which is what we do at Goldman Sachs,” Mr Rothery said.
Client-facing roles, largely held by men, garnered bigger bonuses compared to operational and administrative positions including information technology, human resources or communications.
More women in finance
Banks have bolstered junior ranks with more women at graduate level, and some including Citi and RBC Capital Markets have participated in Women in Finance initiatives at universities to encourage young women to consider careers in banking.
“We still need to do a better job of promoting investment banking as a career option for young women because, despite prioritising gender balance for our annual intern and graduate programs, we still see applications from men outnumbering women,” Ms Rennie said.
Morgan Stanley has increased the women in its local business to 42 per cent this year from 37 per cent in 2021, a spokeswoman for the bank said.
“Meaningful and sustainable change will take time,” said Morgan Stanley Australia CEO Richard Wagner, adding the firm was committed to investing in women and achieving gender balance “across all levels and divisions”.
Goldman’s Mr Rothery also stressed that bridging the gap would take time. Senior positions such as a managing director role is usually achieved after decades of service to a bank.
And the challenge, especially for client-facing roles, was convincing women to stay in their roles long enough to scale their pay.
“[Goldman Sachs’] numbers do reflect an under-representation of women at our most senior levels … We have made progress over the years, yet we have significant work to do,” Mr Rothery said.
Join us next week for special coverage of International Women’s Day culminating in our Women to Watch special report, which will celebrate the achievements of Australian women in key sectors of the economy.
Read more about Australia’s gender pay gap
- Bonuses, overtime drive 19pc gender pay gap The median pay gap at businesses with 100-plus employees was published for the first time on Tuesday, and the construction, professional services and banking industries recorded some of the worst disparities.
- Full list | To zero in on the country’s most prominent firms, The Australian Financial Review has collated the data for companies in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 sharemarket index, and the 50 largest private companies by revenue.
- When we talk about the gender pay gap, this is what we mean The Workplace Gender and Equality Agency released individual employers’ gender pay gaps for the first time on Tuesday. Here’s how to understand the numbers.
- These companies nailed the gender pay challenge. It wasn’t easy Companies such as Super Retail Group, Wesfarmers, PwC and Cotton On have the most balanced pay rates between men and women employees.
- Diversity advocates McKinsey, BCG, Bain land pay gaps over 30pc | Strategy firms that advise clients to increase the diversity of their workforces and leadership teams have gender pay gaps that are up to double the national gap.
- PwC leads the way on reducing the gender pay gap | Big four consulting firm PwC is the only major consultancy that has effectively eliminated its gender pay gap.
- Corrs lags top law firms on gender pay gap Firms with a higher proportion of women partners tended to have a smaller median pay gap among staff, new data from WGEA shows.
- Oil, gas giants claim highest pay gaps in resources industry More men working offshore and at remote mines in roles that attract away-from-home allowances and higher pay, fuel the mining industry’s highest pay gaps.
- IPO hopeful Rokt has largest gender pay gap of tech unicorns Male-dominated software engineering and sales teams have worsened the pay divide across the local technology sector.
- Opinion | The time for empty promises on women’s pay is over The gender pay gap data for individual companies to be released this week has many limitations, but it will still be a historic moment than can be a force for good.
- Emma fuels jets for the overtime, but she’s a gender pay gap exception Traditionally male-dominated industries such as energy and construction have wider gender pay gaps, CEOs admit ahead of the historic release of national gender pay gap data.
Source: afr.com
