The difference between what women and men earn in the investment management sector has worsened, a new study has claimed.
A disproportionate number of men are working in the highest paid roles in the asset management industry – a trend found across all financial services sectors.
However, investment management has the lowest percentage of high paid women, the report claims.
Just 23.2% of women occupy the upper quartile of the industry, compared to 24.9% in banking, and 31.5% in insurance.
Out of the 22 business sectors analysed by UK firm PwC in association with the Diversity Project, the investment management sector came second last in terms of gender pay performance.
According to PwC’s report, the industry recorded an increase of 0.6% in average mean pay gap over the first two years of mandatory reporting. The education sector fared slightly better, with a slight rise of 1% in difference between what women and men earn.
Out of the five sectors with the biggest gender pay gaps recorded in 2018 (banking, investment management, insurance, real estate, and travel), only the investment management industry failed to record an overall improvement.
The average mean pay gap for investment management is now at 31%, second only to the banking industry’s shortfall of 32%, the report said.
Dame Helena Morrissey, chair of the Diversity Project and head of personal investing at Legal & General Investment Management, said: “We still have a problem convincing many mainstream fund managers that diversity is a business issue, rather than political correctness. Let’s be clear: diversity is a business imperative. We are throwing down the gauntlet to ensure it’s treated like one.”
©2019 funds europe
