Pay gap widens as men earn twice as much as women in bonuses

The pay gap between men and women is being made worse by a 50% gap in bonuses between the sexes, a report shows.

Male managers earned average bonuses twice as big as those of their female counterparts over the past 12 months, according to the latest data, published annually, by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and salary specialists XpertHR.

Male managers earned on average £6,442 compared with £3,029 earned by women, on top of average basic salaries almost 25% bigger (£38,169 compared with £29,667). The findings are based on data from more than 43,000 UK workers.

The CMI calculates that men stand to earn more than £141,500 more in bonuses than women doing the same role over the course of a working lifetime.

Both the gender bonus and pay gaps are more pronounced at senior levels. At £36,270, female directors’ bonuses are dwarfed by the average amount taken home by male directors in the last year – £63,700. Even without taking bonuses into account, the data shows that the gender pay gap increases with each rung of the management ladder.

Ann Francke, CMI chief executive, said: “Despite genuine efforts to get more women onto boards, it’s disappointing to find that not only has progress stalled, but women are also losing ground at senior levels. Women are the majority of the workforce at entry level, but still lose out on top positions and top pay. The time has come to tackle this situation more systemically.”

At entry level women are faring better, earning £989 more than men on average, but by middle management they receive £1,760 less than men – and at director level, the gap widens to £15,561 (based on an average basic salary of £140,586 for men and £125,025 for women).

Men are more likely than women to get a bonus across all management levels (42.3% compared with 40.6%), but this gap is largest at director level: 42% of female directors took home a bonus in the past year, compared with 52% of men. Similarly, while male managers’ earnings across all levels are rising faster than women’s for the first time in five years (3.2% compared with 2.8% including bonuses), male directors’ earnings rose 5.3% over the past 12 months, compared with just 1.1% for female directors.

XpertHR’s head of salary surveys Mark Crail said: “There is no good reason for men to still be earning more in bonuses than women when they are in very similar jobs. But it’s often the case that men and women have different career paths, with ‘male’ roles more likely to attract bonuses. While women are generally getting lower bonuses than men, especially at senior levels, they may be entering occupations where there is less of a culture of bonus payments. The question for employers is why that is the case.”

The 2013 National Management Salary Survey is carried out by XpertHR and supported by the CMI. Data was collected between March 2012 and February 2013.