The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has voluntarily reported its gender pay data with a 16.5% median gender pay gap and 19.6% mean gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay.
The organisation, which employs just under 100 staff, is not legally obliged to report these details under the gender pay gap reporting regulations, but has taken the decision to publicy publish its findings.
The gender pay gap reporting regulations require organisations with 250 or more employees to publish the difference between both the mean and median hourly rate of pay for male and female full-time employees; the difference between both the mean bonus pay and median bonus pay for male and female employees; the proportions of male and female employees who were awarded bonus pay; and the proportions of male and female full-time employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands.
The ABI’s mean gender pay gap for bonuses paid during the reporting period is 37.75% and the median gender pay gap for bonus payments is 35.33%. During this time frame, 80% of female and 89% of male employees received bonus payments.
Just under one-third (30%) of employees in the highest pay quartile at the ABI are female, compared to 58% in the second quartile, 58% in the third quartile and 62.5% in the lowest pay quartile.
The ABI has attributed its gender pay gap to the distribution of male and female employees at the organisation and is looking at ways to address this. The organisation is continuing to focus on promoting and nurturing talent internally, training to all staff, to use best practice to help avoid unconscious bias in recruitment and encouraging all staff to focus on their personal and career development regardless of gender.
Huw Evans, director general at the ABI, said: “Gender pay reporting has helped highlight the significant diversity challenges facing financial services. The insurance and long-term savings sector is committed to greater diversity and inclusion which is why as its leading trade body, we felt we should voluntarily publish our own data.
“These figures show the ABI still has work to do on gender pay, primarily because of the greater number of men in our senior leadership positions. We were among the first wave of organisations to sign up to the Women In Finance Charter and despite meeting our initial targets, we know we need to go further. I know our members are also reflecting hard on their results and using gender pay gap data as they pursue their [diversity and inclusion] strategies.”