Could banking sector be demonstrating discrimination?

A new report has revealed that the banking sector may be demonstrating discrimination when it comes to bonuses awarded to its staff.

The inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission revealed that women employees earned an average of £2,875 in annual performance related pay, compared to an average of £14,554 for men.

This equates to around an 80 per cent pay gap between the genders, while the gap in basic annual pay stood at 39 per cent.

However, this gender pay gap rises to 47 per cent for annual total earnings when performance related pay, bonuses and overtime are taken into account.

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Among the organisations which responded, women received significantly lower performance related pay on average than men in 94 per cent of cases.

Commenting on the news, Tatjana Hine, president of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, said that “the banking sector is the worst that there is regarding differentials between men and women”.

She added that the industry was traditionally very male-dominated and that involved long hours and a “play hard, work hard” mentality, which women may not be able to manage if they are juggling other commitments.