CYBG to tie gender diversity to executive pay after publishing gender pay gap

CYBG, owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, today revealed that its gender pay gap sits at 37 per cent.

The figures provide a view of the overall mean and median gender pay and bonus gap and is based on figures for April 2017 and bonus paid in the previous 12 months.

CYBG said the gap in pay was largely driven by the higher number of men in senior roles, compared to their female counterparts. As of September, 37 per cent of employees in the top pay quartile were women compared to 63 per cent male.

However across the Bank more widely, women represent the majority of the workforce and 63 per cent of the bank’s lowest pay quartile are female.

CYBG recently agreed that the minimum salary for full time employees will increase by 11 per cent to £17,000, something it said would address the issue.

As part of its wider inclusion strategy, the Bank is working to build strong female representation at all levels within the organisation.

In March, CYBG signed up to the Government’s Women in Finance Charter and has committed to reaching a target of 40 per cent of females in senior management roles by 2020, with a long-term ambition to reach a 50:50 balance in senior management levels.

The bank is also now including new measures in its Long-Term Incentive Plan for senior executives, which for the first time, links part of senior executives’ performance related pay to reaching higher levels of diversity at senior levels in the organisation.

A spokesperson said: “CYBG has already made good progress in promoting a more diverse population, particularly at senior levels – 30 per cent of the Bank’s executive leadership team and 25 per cent of the bank’s board are female, along with 35 per cent of all senior managers.”

Speaking about CYBG’s approach to inclusion, Kate Guthrie, Group Human Resources Director, said: “Inclusivity and diversity are at the heart of our business – we are a people-led business and are determined to make CYBG a brilliant, rewarding and inclusive place to work.

“The publication of our first ever Gender Pay Report is an important milestone in our drive to create stronger gender diversity across the business and have greater representation of women at senior levels across all parts of the Bank.

“We’ve introduced a target of 40% females in senior management roles by 2020 and are now formally linking senior executives reward to the delivery of our inclusion targets. But we won’t stop there – ultimately, we want to achieve a 50:50 gender balance in senior management roles.

“We are working hard to improve our gender pay gap and in addition to setting targets we are also making flexible working easier, investing in our talent and succession programmes and taking a sustainable and effective approach to our long-term recruitment planning.”

CYBG has also committed to undertake a bi-annual Equal Pay Audit, where gender distribution of performance, base pay, allowances and bonus paid to staff are reviewed.