There has been only a slight decrease in the gap between pay received by men and women working at Bank of Ireland over the past year but the bank is on target to achieve a 50:50 gender balance target for senior appointments.
Bank of Ireland has reported a gender pay gap of 23.8 per cent, a 0.4 per cent improvement over the past year.The bank attributed the discrepancy to the fact that women continue to be under-represented at senior levels, and over-represented at junior grades.
The gender pay gap is calculated by working out the average pay of all women in the company and comparing it with the average pay of all men.
Bank of Ireland said last year it introduced more flexible ways of working for all colleagues, as well as implementing career development and leadership programmes for female talent to increase representation in senior management roles.
It said 41 per cent of senior appointments last year were female, improving in the second half of 2020 to 47 per cent. The bank is hoping to achieve a 50:50 gender balance by the end of 2021.
Disparity
"Gender pay disparity within Bank of Ireland has decreased slightly over the past 12 months, however, we know we still have a lot of work to do in this area. As an organisation we are working hard to improve gender balance, rolling out tailored initiatives and introducing reporting controls that allows us to measure clear progress," said chief people officer Matt Elliot.
“We need to continue doing the right things to close the gender pay gap, such as maintaining our focus on attracting and developing female talent. And we need to ensure that our commitment to inclusion and diversity is a part of every Bank of Ireland employee’s working experience.
“This won’t happen overnight but we have made our position in this area very clear, and can look forward to further progress being made in the years to come,” he added.
