A HOLYROOD parliamentary committee has been told that legislating on the gender pay gap is the only way to ensure meaningful change.
Responding to a suggestion from Dean Lockhart MSP that government could not legislate for cultural changes, Debbie Crosbie, chief operating officer at Clydesdale Bank said: “If you have targets, you change behaviour. Unless you want the gap to still exist in 30 years you have to be much bolder, much more specific.”
Ms Crosbie was addressing the Scottish Parliament’s economy, jobs and fair work committee, which is holding an inquiry into whether closing the gender pay gap could boost Scotland’s economy.
Yesterday, the inquiry focused on the scale of the gender gap in Scotland’s financial services sector, which is 30 per cent, is the widest of any sector in Scotland.
Evidence was heard by women in senior positions at Clydesdale Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, EY and law firm CMS Cameron McKenna.
Ms Crosbie said if actions by government to address the gap were not strong enough it would give businesses the chance to talk about action without doing very much.
“If you legislate strong and encourage people to think about equal pay in the sense of women being paid equally for similar roles, you open a more helpful conversation about why women don’t have the same ambition to find themselves in more senior roles down the line,” she told the committee. “If you truly want to change business you have to have more women CEOs, more women in positions that really matter.”
Tricia Nelson, partner at EY, added: “If we have a combination of visibility of performance through a number of different lenses, of which the gender pay gap is one, then we will have a movement. Has there been progress, yes; is there a huge way to go, absolutely.”
The inquiry comes ahead of the implementation of the Equality Act (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2016, which requires companies to report on the differences between male and female pay. Employers will have to publish their first report by April 2018, based on their pay data as at April 30 this year.
Gillian MacLellan, partner at CMS Cameron McKenna told the committee: “The legislation could be a turning point but there is a huge amount of discretion about how people implement this legislation and how they report it.”
She argued that the government had to ensure all data was reported in the same way, in order for meaningful conclusions to be drawn.
Further action is also being taken. In March 2016 the UK Government launched the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter to encourage the financial industry to improve gender balance in senior management.
So far, 71 businesses have signed up, including EY and The Royal Bank of Scotland, with Ms Crosbie noting that Clydesdale Bank planned to sign up to the charter shortly.
Ms MacLellan said the charter “has put [the gender pay gap] in the headlights, increased focus and that itself has to be a good thing."
She added: "The language isn’t the strongest but those who have signed up are doing more, they’re making a commitment”.
Debbie Miller, inclusion manager at RBS said: “It’s not about fixing women’s pay, but fixing culture.”
She noted that RBS has seen investment from Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund as a result of its work in improving gender diversity. RBS has an internal target to have women occupy 30 per cent of senior management roles by 2020, rising to parity in 2030.
Returning to work after maternity leave was highlighted as a defining point in a woman’s career – and that one way to end the pay gap is to offer more support to women who return to work with the same ambition for progress they had before they had children.
Ms Crosbie said: “I hear a lot of people say women made the choice to not come back [after maternity leave] but coming back is often not viable. We need culturally realistic options, for too many women the choice is too difficult and so they opt out”.
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