Differences in pay between men and women are still alive and well in the City with wealthy women earning an average of 37% less than their high earning male counterparts.
These new figures from The Route City wealth club show that men earn significantly higher average salaries (£445,000) than women (£281,000).
Mark Worrall, Managing Director of The Route comments:
“We recently launched our unique wealth management club concept and based on the client data we have it appears that under 20% of our high earning clients are women.
“We know that women are traditionally more likely to take career breaks to start a family so with generally shorter careers and in many instances lower salaries, it is vitally important that women make the most of their income by using a professional wealth management service.”
The Route data goes on to show that the legal and management consultancy (MC) sectors have the largest salary disparity between sexes with men (legal: £622,000 and MC: £431,000) earning on average 59% more than women (legal: £255,000 and MC: £175,000).
These findings echo those released by the Law Society in May 2008 when they found that the median salary for all male solicitors was £60,000 – more than £19,000 higher than their female counterparts – and appears to show that the gap widens as employees climb the career ladder.
Women who worked in property management and investment also earn significantly less than the men who work within this industry.
However, the Route client research also showed that women who were self employed earned on average more than men.
Thus illustrating that women who ‘go it alone’ may earn less than those in the corporate world but do out strip their male counter parts.
Mark Worrall, Managing Director, The Route, comments:
“Even when you are at the top of your career, your salary can still be affected by your sex. Some of the disparity between the two genders salaries may – of course – be due to the fact that women often have shorter careers but this is unlikely to account for the 59% salary gaps that we see in the legal and management consultancy professions.
“The Route is well placed to ensure that women make the most of their income and help them to plan their financial life goals around their career cycles.
Nabila Sadiq of financial services recruiter Joslin Rowe Temporaries said:
“These figures are hugely worrying and show the gender pay gap in the City is worse than the London average – let alone that of the UK as a whole. According to the Greater London Authority women in London are paid up to 23 per cent less than men while the mean gender gap across the whole of the UK is 17 per cent.
“The greater discrepancy in the City could be partially explained by the fact that fewer women compete for the most senior roles with the biggest salaries. But that’s no excuse for firms to pay women less than men when they’re doing the same job.
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“It’s completely unacceptable and if the situation doesn’t change rapidly, more women will take their skills out of big, established businesses and turn to entrepreneurial start ups to ensure they earn the pay they deserve.”
Nabila Sadiq has won ‘Business Woman of the Year’ at the ‘Asian Women of Achievement Awards’ and is Managing Director of Joslin Rowe’s temporary recruitment business.
