Chief executive Catherine Howarth questioned the asset manager at its annual general meeting on Friday over its “dismal” gender pay gap numbers
Comparing median hourly rates, women earn 72p for every £1 that men earn at the company, known for its hedge fund strategies. Women’s median bonus pay is 57.7% lower than men’s.
“As you might imagine from their name and their industry there is a lot of very well paid men at Man Group,” Howarth said.
The head of the share activist said she asked the chief executive Luke Ellis and the chair about the gender pay gap figures.
“They are aiming for 25% of top-quartile earners to be women. A little bit underwhelming,” she said.
Shareaction has pledged to challenge asset managers over gender pay gap figures this AGM season with Howarth noting the embarrassing numbers could limit fund managers from grilling their own portfolio companies about the issue.
Schroders was the first asset manager to face questioning from the organisation, over its gender pay gaps of 27% for mean pay and 29% for median hourly pay. For bonuses the mean was 75% and the median was 60%.
This year the government made it compulsory for companies with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap.
In the asset management industry, the average mean gender pay gap is 30.5%, while the median is 29%, according to figures crunched by Portfolio Adviser in April, based on 37 asset managers.
Nomura and Investec Asset Management tied for the highest mean gap, with 48.8%, while Standard Life Investments was second, with a mean gap of 47%.
