The fund house is the latest in a small line-up of asset managers who have disclosed the discrepancy between male and female pay across all levels of their businesses.
All companies with more than 250 employees will have to release information about their wage gap by 4 April, in accordance with new regulation from the UK Government Equalities Office.
Pre-merger Standard Life had one of the biggest gender pay gaps, with men earning 42% more than women on average. At Aberdeen Asset Management, meanwhile, men were paid 34% more than their female counterparts on average.
On Monday, Hermes Investment Management and Brewin Dolphin also revealed notable gender pay gaps, with the former reporting a 30.2% pay gap and the latter admitting women’s average hourly rate is 38.2% lower than their male counterparts.
At Jupiter, while 92% of women received a bonus versus just 91% of men, the mean bonus pay gap, or the percentage male employees are paid more than female employees, was a whopping 84%.
CEO Maarten Slenderbroek clarified that while “Jupiter does not have an equal pay issue” it has “far too few female employees working at senior levels in our fund management and sales teams”, which he said is “the key reason behind the gender pay gap”.
“We can and must do better,” said Slenderbroek, adding that he was disappointed Jupiter “is not further along the road to eliminating this unwelcome gap in gender pay”.
Slenderbroek added that the company was committed to increasing the number of women in senior fund management and sales roles but did not list specific targets.
The asset manager has achieved gender parity on its board of directors, which the CEO said has been “highly beneficial to our business” and demonstrates “at the most senior level of our organisation, that diversity is valued and sets the tone accordingly”.
Jupiter said it was in the process of reviewing a number of policies to increase female participation at all levels of the business, from developing a mentoring programme to creating a gender mix in its recruitment process and updating its parental leave policies.
The asset manager is involved with several initiatives designed to support diversity in financial services, including the Women in Finance Charter, the Diversity Project Initiative and the Investment2020 scheme.
“Change will not happen overnight but I look forward to being able to report on tangible progress in future years as we seek to narrow and eventually eradicate the gender pay gap,” said Slenderbroek.
