UK companies reveal gender salary gap; Salesforce, Facebook named highest paying employers

Toilet Gender Signs — A combination of two signs with the word 'Chancellor' pictured on toilet doors at a restaurant in Berlin May 7, 2007. Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke

Some companies in the UK have disclosed gender pay gaps as much as 36 percent, which is twice the national average. Meanwhile, a new report shows that Salesforce, a US cloud computing company, is the highest-paying employer in the United Kingdom.

The pay of men who work at banks is 36 percent more than women’s, Virgin Money revealed. The pay gap was at 31 percent at asset manager Schroders Plc while Utility SSE Plc declared an average pay gap of 23.4 percent. As for consulting firm PwC, it reported a 15 percent difference in men and women’s salary.

The figures were released ahead of a new law that requires companies to determine the difference between the average and median hourly pay rates for their male and female employees. The pay-gap analysis is expected to end the compensation gulf.

The national pay gap is a little more than 18 percent based on government statistics. According to the data from the Confederation of British Industry, 60 percent of the top paying jobs belong to men while women hold 60 percent of the lowest-paying roles.

Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor Inc, said the main driver of the gender salary gap is the way men and women are divided into different job functions. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, who focuses on diversity at global companies, urges companies to “adapt their cultures to a more gender-balanced world,” Bloomberg reports.

UK employees also want companies to be transparent. A Glassdoor poll indicated that 58 percent of respondents said the government must force businesses to disclose salaries in order to combat unequal pay. Even shareholders want companies to reveal and end gender pay gaps. Employers that can follow are expected to have an edge in recruiting, as well as with investors.

Meanwhile, online career site Glassdoor named the highest paying companies in the United Kingdom. Salesforce topped the list, followed by Facebook and Microsoft. Google, which secured the ninth spot in 2015, was not able to make it to Glassdoor’s list this year. Glassdoor’s chief economist Andrew Chamberlain said companies such as Salesforce and Facebook are looking for the best talents, and are willing to pay top dollar.

Glassdoor based the results on data submitted by UK employees. It obtained 30 salary reports over the past year. The Independent noted that of all the highest paying jobs included in Glassdoor’s list, only one company, Nomura International, is headquartered in London.