A study by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has revealed that the difference between the average pay that female managers and male managers receive has grown by £500 over the last year. This data means that on average, male managers now earn £10,500 more than their female counterparts.
The average pay for female managers is now at £31,895 per year, where the average for male managers is £42,441.
The CMI has confirmed that female management pay is continuing to rise at a faster rate than men. However, the current rate of growth is only 0.3% higher than men. At this rate, it will take 98 years to equalise.
However, the study did reveal that at the junior management level, women were paid and average of £21,969 whilst men earned an average of £21,367. This was the first time that the average pay for female junior managers was at a higher level that the male average.
Petra Wilton, the director of policy at CMI, said: “While CMI is delighted that junior female executives have caught up with males at the same level, this year’s salary survey demonstrates, yet again, that businesses are contributing to the persistent gender pay gap by alienating top female employees by continuing to pay men and women unequally. This kind of bad management is damaging UK businesses and must be addressed.”
The study revealed that the best rate of pay for female management was in London where the average salary was £42,517. However, in London, the gender gap was higher than the national average, with male managers earning an average of £11,129 higher than female managers.
Northern Ireland had the biggest gender gap in management salary with male managers earning an average of £13,793 more than female managers. The smallest gap was in Wales where the gap was only £2,441 in favour of male managers.
Former government Minister, Lord Davies of Abersoch, produced an independent report in February this year which advised firms to more than double the number of female board members by 2015. The report suggested that should companies fail to do this voluntarily, then the government should consider introducing quotas.
Mr Davies believes that there had been some encouraging signs of improvements since February, but a lot more work was still to be done, suggesting that some companies were still ‘dragging their feet’.
The study also revealed that the levels of redundancy for male and female management in the UK was equal at 2.2%. This was an improvement on the previous year, when 3% of men were being made redundant, compared to 4.5% of women.
The information regarding management resignations revealed that more female managers quit their jobs than their male counterparts. In total, 4.2% of female managers quit their jobs, compared to 3.6% of male managers. Transfers to new roles within the company were more equal at 3.4% for women and 3.3% for men.