UK FinTech female leaders have called for regulation to help narrow the gender pay gap and encourage stronger female progression in the sector.
The call comes from a new report from EY and Innovate Finance, ‘Changing the face of UK FinTech: from glass ceiling to open doors: championing equality and career progression for women in FinTech.’ The research includes interviews with the 120 nominees of the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist.
Contributors cited a lack of industry recognition for their contribution (27% of respondents) and non-transparent promotion processes (25%) as barriers to career progression.
As for solutions to this problem, regulation of the gender pay gap came out on top, with 17% of respondents putting this as their first choice of how to improve gender diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Office of National Statistics claims the UK’s gender pay gap stands at 14.9% for all types of employees, across all industries. However, this increases to 27% in tech and 26% in financial services sectors. EY estimates the gender pay gap to be 22%. The pay gap is defined by the difference between men and women’s median hourly earnings.
The new report from EY highlights key contributing factors to the gender pay gap in the UK FinTech industry. These include low levels of transparency around pay, and low female representation in higher paying roles.
EY has made a number of recommendations for firms to help tackle the gender gap. These recommendations include committing to consistent salary bands to ensure parity when hiring, and look to improve salary transparency using tech-enabled solutions and engaging payroll and accounting software companies to automate processes.
EY head of UK Fintech Chris Woolard said, “The FinTech sector is an increasingly important part of the global financial services ecosystem, with the UK playing a leading and exemplary role. However, the fact that female representation, particularly at board level, is still so low is not sustainable for an industry in growth mode.
“Now is the time to build on early progress with further regulation to help drive a material narrowing of the gender pay gap. Change has to be accelerated and an environment fostered that encourages greater diversity of thinking. Not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it will ensure the UK FinTech sector is in the best possible position to continue leading the way globally.”
Last week, Goldman Sachs deployed more than $2.1bn in its One Million Black Women project to support the financial and social empowerment of black women.
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