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Lloyd’s gender pay gap shrinks

Posted On: Mar. 19, 2019 2:17 PM CST

Mind the pay gap

Lloyd’s of London’s gender pay gap shrank in 2018 to 19.9%, according to the organization’s gender pay gap report.

The gender pay gap, which reflects the difference between the average pay for men compared with women within the organization, declined by 7.8 percentage points compared with last year’s report, which showed a gap of 27.7%, according to data released by Lloyd’s in compliance with U.K. legislation that requires employers of a certain size to publicly release information on pay differences.

The bonus pay gap also shrank to 30.1% compared with the 36.7% reported last year, according to Lloyd’s data.

The improvement is primarily driven by greater gender balance across Lloyd’s senior employee population, with the increase in female talent resulting from a 2017 mandate for a 50-50 gender balance in external recruiting lists and the introduction of revised job descriptions, grading and benchmarking that has created more rigor across roles, including some significant pay increases for both male and female employees, according to Lloyd’s gender pay gap report.

But there is still a higher proportion of men than women in senior roles (65%) than women (35%) in the highest-paying quartile, while the reverse is true in the lowest-paying quartile, according to the report.

“While we are pleased to report that our 2018 Gender Pay Gap has shown a 7.8% improvement, the Lloyd’s Corporation still has a significant way to go,” John Neal, Lloyd’s CEO, said in the statement. “Closing the gender pay gap requires a long-term approach that addresses the historical environment that has led to our current imbalance. As we look towards the future, one of our priorities is to speed up progress on bringing a much more diverse and gender-balanced group of talent into Lloyd’s.”

Lloyd’s will continue to build out initiatives such as the introduction of enhanced family care policies and flexible working for all employees, he said. Lloyd’s commissioned research on family friendly best practices and recommendations on enhancements to policies and flexible working practices have been reviewed for implementation in 2019.

It also plans to expand its Advance female development program announced in September. The first group included 15 women from across the London insurance market — a number that will increase in 2019, according to Lloyd’s.

U.K. organizations with 250 or more employees are required to publish specific data about their gender pay gap and a written statement and report their data to the government online, beginning from 2017. The requirement was enshrined in the Equality Act of 2010, with the regulations coming into effect on April 5, 2017.