An inquiry by the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission has uncovered systematic and pervasive sexual discrimination by UK banks. According to responses by the UK's 44 largest financial institutions, female employees are consistently hired at lower salaries than equally qualified men, there is a massive gender pay gap of 39% in basic salary, and female employees on average receive 80% less than men in performance-related pay and bonuses. And no, the banks aren't interested in doing anything about this, with fewer than half making any effort to address the gender pay gap, and less than a quarter having conducted a proper pay equity audit. makes you wonder what our - or rather, Australia's - banks are like, doesn't it?
One of the reasons the banks are able to get away with this sort of pervasive discrimination is because of secrecy - they don't publish information on pay equity, while confidentiality clauses prevent employees from sharing information on pay and uncovering the differences. The UK government is currently advancing legislation to address this by requiring large companies to publish headline pay equity information and forbidding such clauses. We could - and should do the same here.
