Men paid 51% more than women at Goldman Sachs International

Women at Goldman Sachs International earn 51% less than men, according to new figures released as the deadline for reporting pay gap numbers approaches.

Figures released by the US investment bank showed a gap in average hourly pay of 50.6% in the UK, while bonus awards for men were 66.7% higher than those paid to women.

The numbers represent an improvement on one year earlier, when hourly and bonus pay showed 55.5% and 72.2% gaps respectively.

Chief executive Richard Gnodde said that although the company insists it pays equally for equal work, there is “much more that we need to do to ensure that we have a diversity of talent at all levels at our firm”.

“Our people are our greatest asset,” he said. “Ensuring that we recruit the best talent and give everyone the greatest opportunity to contribute is the most important task of those of us in leadership roles at the firm.”

It comes after HSBC, one of last year’s worst offenders, revealed an even wider gender pay gap in January, which showed men earn 61% more than women.

Meanwhile Goldman Sachs (UK) SVC, the bank’s second UK entity, had an even bigger gap than the previous year.

Average hourly pay for women was 17.9% lower, compared with a 16.1% disparity last year.

Mr Gnodde said initiatives to hire more women at entry level were progressing, putting the company closer to its target of 50% representation of women across its global analyst intake by 2021.

Additions to healthcare programmes, policies around caring and enhanced training on parental leave have also been implemented.

The Government has set a deadline of April 4 when all organisations with 250 staff or more are expected to publish their gender pay gap figures.