The Treasury Committee said London’s financial district needs to tackle its “alpha male culture” and its “unconscious” bias to improve gender diversity and reduce the gender pay gap, the Independent newspaper reported today.
The cluster of MPs on the committee pinpointed long and rigid working hours as key inhibitors to the entry of more women into the financial services sector, and called for these barriers to be removed.
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Nicky Morgan, the committee’s chairwoman, said “The reporting of gender pay gaps at financial services firms confirms that a large gap exists between men and women working in finance, in part due to significantly more men than women in higher-earning and more senior positions.
“The benefits of gender diversity are highlighted in the report, including better financial performance, reduced groupthink and more open discussions.”
According to the data, HSBC pays its female employees also 60 percent less its male workers, and the average gender pay gap in banks and building societies stands at 35 percent.
It should be noted that most gender pay gap studies fail to take into account different working hours and career choices, and therefore, pay gap statistics typically don’t serve as accurate comparisons of how much male and female colleagues earn for the same amount of work, at the same level.
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