Petra Wilton
New figures released today (31 August 2011) by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) show that female executives are earning as much as their male counterparts for the first time since its records began, albeit only at junior executive level.
Earning an average salary of £21,969, female junior executives in the UK are currently being paid marginally more (£602) than male executives at the same level, whose average salary is £21,367.
However, the figures, made public following a survey of 34,158 UK executives by XpertHR on behalf of CMI, paint a bleaker picture for women in more senior positions.
Women heading up departments and business streams are almost twice as likely as men in the same roles to be made redundant (2.7% of male function heads were made redundant between February 2010 and February 2011).
Worse still, at the next level up, almost five times as many female directors as male directors lost their jobs over the same time period (0.6% of male directors, compared to 2.9% of female directors).
The mixed findings in terms of workplace equality continue when the data for the whole sample of male and female executives across all seniority levels is analysed.
Female executives will be encouraged that they are likely to have received slightly bigger pay rises than male colleagues this year - the average salary increase for women was 2.4% whereas for men it was 2.1%). They will be less happy to hear, though, that the average salary for a male executive in the UK outstrips that of a female doing the same job by £10,546 (the average salary for a male executive is £42,441 while for a female executive it is £31,895).
At these rates of salary increase with this size of gender pay gap, it would take 98 years until the salaries of female executives caught up with those of their male counterparts, in the year 2109.
Using these figures to highlight the issue of gender inequality in the workplace, CMI is calling on both women and employers to take action now. CMI’s Director of Policy and Research, Petra Wilton, said: "While CMI is delighted that junior female executives have caught up with males at the same level, there are things that employers and female employees can be doing to close the gap across other levels.
"Women need to push for pay transparency in their organisations and encourage their employees to work on their diversity programmes.
"Women also need to be proactive when discussing pay, as all too often women fail to negotiate and are therefore unsuccessful in achieving the top salaries. In addition, women are sometimes more reticent than their male colleagues about asking for a pay rise.
"In many cases this is a matter of confidence which is where female networking organisations can help. CMI’s sister network WiM (Women in Management) www.managers.org.uk/wim organise a number of networking events across the country to provide support and advice for women in management positions.
"There are proven benefits for businesses in having female representation throughout all levels of seniority. Businesses are losing their top talent by not paying their top executives fairly and they need to do more to be flexible to encourage diversity. A number of organisations have brought in successful mentoring and sponsorship schemes in an attempt to increase female representation at the top."
Looking at the nations and regions, outside London and the South East, where salaries are unsurprisingly largest at £42,517 and £33,427 respectively, women should look to the South West (£31,247) and Scotland (£30,652) for the best pay packets.
The gender pay gap is biggest in Northern Ireland (the average male executive salary is £13,793 more than that of female executives), followed by the Midlands (£11,346) and London (£11,129), while salaries are most equal in Wales where the pay gap is £2,441.
Petra Wilton continues,: "We are concerned that redundancy appears to be adversely affecting women in more senior positions, particularly as there has been so much activity recently to try and improve female representation on the boards of UK companies.
"We know from reports such as that of Lord Davies into women in boardrooms that companies are more likely to grown and outperform their rivals if they have a higher proportion of women in senior positions. If organisations are making women at department head and director level redundant, rather than promoting them to their boards, they clearly won’t be in a position to reap these benefits.
"It is possible, however, that women are opting for voluntary redundancy over the corporate rat race - there is lots of anecdotal evidence showing that women keen on more flexible working arrangements are setting up their own businesses or leaving jobs to work on a freelance basis."
Phillippa Williamson, CMI Companion and Chief Executive of the Serious Fraud Office, comments: "Business leaders are missing a trick by not ensuring they pay their employees fairly. Companies that refuse to prove to talented women that they will be valued and rewarded as much as men won’t be able to recruit or retain the best employees and risk losing them to competitors.
"There is a clear business case for equal pay; evidence shows that companies where women are well represented at every organisational level from board level down perform better. Organisational performance will be improved by ensuring high quality managers and leaders are in place; gender shouldn’t come into it."
Sandra Pollock, National Chair of CMI’s Women in Management (WiM) network said: "There has been a lot of very welcome noise recently about getting more women into senior positions in UK organisations, for example Lord Davies’ report and the 30 Percent Club launching, so it’s disappointing to find that, at the current rate of increase it would be almost a century before men and women in executive jobs are paid equally.
"Why should a woman take on the responsibilities of a director-level position when the likelihood is still that she will be paid significantly less than the man sitting next to her at the boardroom table?
"The research launched today does, however, show that we have won our first battle - it is wonderful to see that the gender pay gap at junior executive level has closed and we hope this continues as this generation climb the ranks of management."
New figures released today (31 August 2011) by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) show that female executives are earning as much as their male counterparts for the first time since its records began, albeit only at junior executive level.
Earning an average salary of £21,969, female junior executives in the UK are currently being paid marginally more (£602) than male executives at the same level, whose average salary is £21,367.
However, the figures, made public following a survey of 34,158 UK executives by XpertHR on behalf of CMI, paint a bleaker picture for women in more senior positions.
Women heading up departments and business streams are almost twice as likely as men in the same roles to be made redundant (2.7% of male function heads were made redundant between February 2010 and February 2011).
Worse still, at the next level up, almost five times as many female directors as male directors lost their jobs over the same time period (0.6% of male directors, compared to 2.9% of female directors).
The mixed findings in terms of workplace equality continue when the data for the whole sample of male and female executives across all seniority levels is analysed.
Female executives will be encouraged that they are likely to have received slightly bigger pay rises than male colleagues this year - the average salary increase for women was 2.4% whereas for men it was 2.1%). They will be less happy to hear, though, that the average salary for a male executive in the UK outstrips that of a female doing the same job by £10,546 (the average salary for a male executive is £42,441 while for a female executive it is £31,895).
At these rates of salary increase with this size of gender pay gap, it would take 98 years until the salaries of female executives caught up with those of their male counterparts, in the year 2109.
Using these figures to highlight the issue of gender inequality in the workplace, CMI is calling on both women and employers to take action now. CMI’s Director of Policy and Research, Petra Wilton, said: "While CMI is delighted that junior female executives have caught up with males at the same level, there are things that employers and female employees can be doing to close the gap across other levels.
"Women need to push for pay transparency in their organisations and encourage their employees to work on their diversity programmes.
"Women also need to be proactive when discussing pay, as all too often women fail to negotiate and are therefore unsuccessful in achieving the top salaries. In addition, women are sometimes more reticent than their male colleagues about asking for a pay rise.
"In many cases this is a matter of confidence which is where female networking organisations can help. CMI’s sister network WiM (Women in Management) www.managers.org.uk/wim organise a number of networking events across the country to provide support and advice for women in management positions.
"There are proven benefits for businesses in having female representation throughout all levels of seniority. Businesses are losing their top talent by not paying their top executives fairly and they need to do more to be flexible to encourage diversity. A number of organisations have brought in successful mentoring and sponsorship schemes in an attempt to increase female representation at the top."
Looking at the nations and regions, outside London and the South East, where salaries are unsurprisingly largest at £42,517 and £33,427 respectively, women should look to the South West (£31,247) and Scotland (£30,652) for the best pay packets.
The gender pay gap is biggest in Northern Ireland (the average male executive salary is £13,793 more than that of female executives), followed by the Midlands (£11,346) and London (£11,129), while salaries are most equal in Wales where the pay gap is £2,441.