A partner at a top finance firm and a States Deputy are calling for Government to take a more active role in encouraging transparency around company gender pay gaps – after shocking new figures revealed men are paid 23% more than women in Jersey’s finance industry.
Published yesterday by Statistics Jersey, the gender pay gap report revealed an average gap of 7.8% in the island during the 12 months leading up to June 2024.
The biggest gender pay gap of any sector was in the information and communication sector (28.2%), whilst the smallest was in the private education, health and other services sector (0.1%).
And whilst the finance and legal activities sector was the highest paying sector on average, it had the second largest gender pay gap in Jersey (22.7%).
Men earned more than women in all age groups over 30 in the finance and legal sector, according to the report – with the gap peaking at 65.7% for those aged 55 to 59.
“A significant gender pay gap”
Responding to the report, Deputy Louise Doublet said: “There is still a significant gender pay gap in Jersey despite the issue being highlighted for several years by scrutiny and other bodies.
“The underlying reasons behind this gap relate to entrenched inequalities in areas such as caregiving responsibilities, occupational segregation and unconscious bias in the workplace.”
She said that closing the gender pay gap and the ethnicity pay gap would make things fairer for marginalised groups, and boost the island’s economy.
“Businesses are currently missing out on many of the best people for jobs at some of the highest levels – addressing this would help businesses to improve their outcomes,” said Deputy Doublet.
“I welcome this report from Statistics Jersey, and I would very much like to see an action plan from Government which includes clarity on how it will be tackled.”
The politician urged the Chief Minister to encourage companies with over 50 employees to voluntarily publish their gender pay gap statistics with an accompanying action plan, on a specific date.
If this was achieved, she said, there may not be a need to introduce mandatory pay gap reporting legislation.
Pay gap reporting is “really beneficial”
PwC has been voluntarily reporting its gender pay gap since 2019 – which partner Karl Hairon said it has been “really beneficial” for the firm.
“Current and future employees and clients can look at our values and see what’s important to us, and inclusivity and diversity is really important,” he explained.
But Mr Hairon acknowledged that “gender pay gap reporting is by no means a silver bullet to gender equality”.
“However we do believe it’s an important tool to demonstrate a firm’s commitment to inclusivity, and it enables us to track progress,” he added.
“For us, we knew that closing the gender pay gap would not be an overnight fix and that in fact it would potentially get worse before it improved.
“But we’re pleased to say our gender pay gap has steadily reduced since we first published.”
But the PwC partner acknowledged the barriers to pay gap reporting that some smaller companies may face.
“We’re quite lucky in that we’ve got somewhere to publish,” said Mr Hairon.
“We’ve got a website and we’ve got a transparency report, which is a natural place to publish it [gender pay gap data].
“But if you’re a small- or medium-sized business, where would you publish it?
“It also depends on the quality of your people systems, in terms of how you can capture the data and then turn that data into the statistics.
“So there’s some practical challenges there that makes it more difficult for smaller businesses.”
A pay gap “league table”?
Mr Hairon said he is “not a fan” of mandating gender pay gap reporting – but suggested that more companies may be encouraged to do so if there was a central place to publish the data.
“I’m not a fan of mandating this sort of thing [gender pay gap reporting] for the reasons I’ve previously spoke about,” he said.
“It can be very burdensome for smaller businesses – but having a place to publish the data could be encouraging.”
Mr Hairon suggested that the government could produce “league table” to allow local businesses to publish their gender pay gap data in one place.
“I’m not sure what the answer is, but making a place for people to publish it would be a good starting point,” he added.
Asking the ‘why?’ question
Mr Hairon also pointed to the “acute skills shortage” in the Channel Islands.
“As a jurisdiction we need to do everything we can to encourage the maximum rates of participation in the labour force to help drive our economy,” he said.
“Today we know that locally there is room for improvement, particularly with the participation of women in work.
“There are many reasons for this. But understanding and removing the barriers has to be a priority.”
As a jurisdiction we need to do everything we can to encourage the maximum rates of participation in the labour force
KARL Hairon, pwc
He added: “I think when you look at the pay gap – which is mostly skewed in in favour of men – the real question is: why aren’t women staying in the workforce to achieve those senior levels?
“It’s not because they’re not good enough. There’s another reason. Is it the cost of child care? All of these factors really do become intertwined.
“So I think the Government needs to ask the ‘why?’ question, not just point at the data.”
The gender pay gap report marks the introduction of a new regular publication, scheduled for release annually each March.
You can read the full report HERE.
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Shocking new stats reveal gender pay gap of 23% in Jersey’s finance sector
