Female executives paid less

A female company executive can expect to earn £400,000 less than her male equivalent over the course of her career, according to a study by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

The analysis, which looks at salary and labour turnover data for 38,843 people in executive roles in the UK, found that average salaries for female executives were £10,600 less than for male workers at the same level.

At director level, the gap grows with female directors earning an average basic salary of £127,257 — £14,689 less than the male director average of £141,946.

The disparity continues with bonuses. Women receive less than half of what men earn in bonuses — the average bonus for a male executive was £7,496, compared with £3,726 for a female executive.

Fewer women are also making it into top roles: the figures show that the percentage of women in the executive workforce now stands at 57%.

But while at junior level the majority (69%) of executive workers are now female, women make up just 40% of department heads and only one in four chief executives (24%).

The CMI called on employers to change corporate cultures, but also wants to see more transparency from companies on pay, and for the organisations most guilty of inequality to be named and shamed.

And it welcomed the announcement that, as of next year, companies will have to make public the number of women in senior positions.