Gender pay gap still looms large at top of UK’s biggest companies

Female board members at FTSE 100 companies are paid 69 per cent less than their male counterparts, as the gender gap at the top of the UK’s largest companies remains.
Women took home an average of £335,953 for board roles at FTSE 100 companies last year, compared with an average of £1,073,445 paid to men, according to figures from Fox & Partners, the employment & partnership law specialists.
The gender gap for board director roles in FTSE 100 companies narrowed from 70 per cent in 2022 to 69 per cent last year. However, across the wider UK labour market the gender pay gap stood at 13.1 per cent in April 2024, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
Catriona Watt, a partner at Fox & Partners, said: “It’s encouraging to see the gender pay gap has slightly shrunk over the past year for directors of the UK’s largest businesses but obviously the figures show that there is still a considerable way to go.”
The gender pay gap on FTSE 100 boards remains high partially because 91 per cent of female directors hold non-executive roles rather than full-time executive positions. Typically non-executive directors have less responsibility and a lower level of total remuneration compared with executive positions.
The gap for executive director pay stood at 29.8 per cent in 2023, with female executive directors earning an average of £2,332,334, compared with their male counterparts who were paid £3,150,424.
Women remain underrepresented in senior roles in the UK’s largest listed businesses. There are currently nine female chief executives of FTSE 100 companies. These include Margherita Della Valle, the head of Vodafone, the telecoms company, and Dame Emma Walmsley, the boss of GSK, the pharmaceuticals group. Allison Kirkby is the most recently appointed female chief executive after she took over from Philip Jansen as head of BT.
Research from Fox & Partners also found that a larger proportion of men are appointed to more senior non-executive roles such as the position of chair, which has higher pay and increased responsibility. Women who held the role of non-executive director were paid an average of £127,593 while men in the position earned £191,381 — a pay gap of 40 per cent.
“We noted several years ago that listed companies were achieving boardroom gender diversity almost exclusively by appointing women to non-exec roles rather than executive roles. That flattered their figures but meant that women were still largely excluded from the arguably most important and most highly paid corporate jobs,” Watt said.
However, this is beginning to change, according to new figures which showed the number of female executive directors increased to 43 in 2023, up from 39 the previous year.
Watt said that the UK’s leading companies should continue to invest in promoting female opportunities, mentoring and working on culture in order to make “a significant impact on the gender pay gap”.