Scottish finance firms among worst in UK for gender pay gap

Research has revealed Standard Life, Aberdeen Asset Management and Royal Bank of Scotland, all headquartered in Edinburgh, pay men 37 per cent more per hour on average than female staff.

It means an average woman at these firms earns 63p for every £1 the average man is paid.

Across the UK, men earned 18.4 per cent more than women in April 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Other finance services firms based north of the border, such as pensions and investment firm Aegon (-27.3 per cent) Clydesdale Bank (-36 per cent), Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Bank of Scotland, (-32.5 per cent) and TSB Bank (-24 per cent), also pay men more than women on average.

Dundee investment firm Alliance Trust has a -19 per cent pay gap, Scottish Widows -16.5 per cent and Edinburgh-based Tesco Personal Finance -14.6 per cent.

The new data also showed men were paid far more in bonuses at Scotland’s top financial institutions.

While the same percentage of women and men received a bonus at Standard Life, the amount was on average 68 per cent less for women. Aberdeen Asset Management recorded the same figure.

Both firms had just 18 per cent women among their highest paid staff.

The figures were revealed after all UK companies with 250 or more employees were required to publish the information.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average salaries of men and women – it is not the same as equal pay, where firms must pay people doing the same job the same salary regardless of gender.