Citi Singapore ensures equal pay for equal work by increasing women's salaries

In line with the global pay adjustments made in 2019, Citi Singapore has adjusted the pay of its women employees to close the gender pay gap

Jorge Osorio, Head of Human Resources, Citi Singapore, said: "At Citi, we are committed to diversity and fair pay. Since 2018, we made an assessment of where we are and what we need to do to close the gender pay gap and have announced base salary adjustments to individuals where necessary. We have also made progress in enabling more women to move into leadership positions."

He also noted that in Singapore, its female representation at Assistant Vice President to Managing Director level roles has increased from 32% in December 2017 to 36% in December 2019.

"While we have moved forward in our goals, more needs to be done. We are committed to meet our global goal of having at least 40% of women in these roles by 2021 and to provide a level playing field to all our employees to enable them to succeed," Osorio added.

Closing the adjusted and unadjusted pay gaps

This comes on the back of two pay equity reviews - the first conducted in January 2018 for employees in United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany; and the second later in 2018 for employees globally. Both reviews found that on an *adjusted basis, women were paid on average 99% of what men were paid at Citi.

The second study also revealed that the **unadjusted total compensation review shows that the median pay for women globally is 71% of the median for men. This is mainly due to differences in gender representation at senior levels of the firm which reinforces the importance of increasing the representation of women and U.S. minorities in senior and higher-paying roles at Citi.

In line with the findings, appropriate increases were made globally to close the adjusted gender pay gap in the 2019 compensation cycle.

Additionally, to address the unadjusted pay gap, Citi has committed to increase global representation of women in Assistant Vice President to Managing Director level roles to at least 40% by 2021.

Progress has been made in this respect. For example, in December 2019, across Asia Pacific, Citi promoted 14 women, or 31% out of the total 45 managing directors named in Asia this year. That's up from only eight in 2018, or 21%.

Support for working mothers

Post-maternity known to be a challenging period especially for working mothers, and statistics have showed that it coincides with high female attrition in the workforce. Hence, Citi has implemented a range of initiatives to enhance the support provided to working mothers and encourage those who have left the workforce to return.

The initiatives include Citi’s “Maternity Matters” programme in Singapore, rolled out in March 2018. The programme seeks to enhance the support provided to female colleagues during their pregnancy, while they are on maternity leave and upon return to work.

Additionally, the #backtowork with Citi initiative in November 2019 in partnership with Mums@Work Singapore to encourage talented individuals who have taken time away from their careers and are interested in returning back to the workforce to join Citi. For a start, Citi advertised for 8 positions and have received about 100 applications so far.

The financial services firm is also investing continually in grooming its up-and-coming female talent.

At every stage of their careers, different programmes are available such as EDGE, Women’s Leadership Development Programme and Asia Inspiring Women’s Leaders Programme to equip them with different tools to grow in their careers.

In Asia and Singapore, Citi's efforts have proved successful with data to back:

• In Asia in 2019, 55% of campus full-time hires were female – up 4% versus 2018. In Singapore in 2019, it was up 8%.
• Singapore saw 28% YoY increases in female hires in Global Consumer Banking in 2019 and 4% YoY increases in female hires in Institutional Clients Group.

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Notes:

• *Adjusted Pay Gap refers to when pay, including base salary and bonuses, for equal work, has been adjusted for appropriate factors such as job function, level, geography, etc. Like for like, equal pay for equal work.
• **Unadjusted Pay Gap measures the difference in median total compensation when we don’t adjust for factors such as job function, level and geography

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Photo / iStock