With the gender pay gap reporting deadline looming a month away, numbers are expected to be worse not better than last year.

• so far, 1,252 or around 12% of all organisations have reported their gender pay gaps

• compares to 17% of companies in financial services, where 71 companies have reported so far this year (424 companies reported in 2018)

• the average median pay gap in financial services is currently 20.6%, compared to 22.2% last year

• the average median bonus gap is 28.3%, compared to 13.4% in 2018

• the company with the highest median gender pay gap so far is Barclays Bank PLC, at 44.1%. The lowest is AXA ICAS Limited at -3.0%

Ex-professional investor and City Hive’s founder and Chief Executive, Bev Shah, is calling for far greater collaboration between and among firms and organisations within the investment industry, as acting alone is unlikely to achieve the necessary impact to address the gender pay gap and the wider factors that prevent progress.

>See also: Finance sector needs to invest in redressing its gender pay gap

Mandy Kirby, Chief Strategist and Co-Founder of City Hive, added: “For some time, the same issues have been identified and acknowledged in authoritative, independent reports, but poor practice persists. The old arguments about incremental change look increasingly weak. It is time to set a new, positive cycle of professional development and a global industry standard to reflect modern times. What we want to see now, is action.”

To kick start a week of celebrations to mark International Women’s Day on 8th March, City Hive, the network for change within the investment management industry, will ‘ring the opening bell’ to start trading at the London Stock Exchange. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day 2019 is ‘Balance for Better’.

Shah said: “A balanced workforce is good for business, good for customers, good for profitability and workplace culture, and increasingly attractive for investors.”

Saker Nusseibeh, chief executive, Hermes Investment Management, said: “There are still huge inequalities that women are facing in the workplace, and financial services is one of the worst in terms of its gender pay gap and diversity.  Women make up 50% of the population, it is simply poor business to exclude such a large portion of the talent pool. Whilst the asset management industry has made some progress, there is still a great deal more to be made. Our industry needs to widen the pool of people from which we recruit irrespective of their specific qualifications and create channels of growth which allows them to flourish over the long-term.” 

Roger Thompson, Chief Financial Officer at Janus Henderson, said: “We are proud to be partnering with CityHive for International Women’s Day. At Janus Henderson, we are passionate about fostering fairness and equality for all employees. We believe a diverse workforce, drawn from a variety of backgrounds, cultures and experiences, brings a better understanding of our clients and better informed investment decisions. We remain committed to our diversity and inclusion initiatives, which include raising gender-equality standards.”

Pictet Asset Management, Eaton Vance Investment Management, Hermes Investment Management, Janus Henderson and Mirabaud Asset Management will join City Hive to open the Market and support the network in its vision for a more diverse industry.

>See also: Senior salary expectations and the gender pay gap