Citi Singapore adjusts pay of female staff to match those of male peers with equal performance

SINGAPORE — Citi Singapore has adjusted the pay of its female employees who, when compared to their male peers of equal work performance, did not receive equal compensation.

In a media statement, the bank said it did so in its 2019 compensation cycle, after a study conducted in January 2018 of pay equity among Citi employees in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. 

“We found that in these locations, on an adjusted basis, women were paid on average 99 per cent of what men were paid,” the bank said.

This adjusted pay gap took into account factors such as job function, level and geography, and therefore was a like-for-like comparison of the salaries of men and women holding the same roles in the same markets.

Later in 2018, Citi completed a similar assessment globally. 

It found similar results — on an adjusted basis, women globally were paid on average 99 per cent of what men were paid at Citi. However, this study also showed that the overall median pay for women globally was 71 per cent of the median for men.

“This was mainly due to differences in gender representation at senior levels of our firm, which reinforces the importance of increasing the representation of women and US minorities in senior and higher-paying roles at Citi,” the bank said.

A study released by the Ministry of Manpower last week found that women in Singapore are not only earning less than men but the gender wage gap has even increased slightly between 2002 and 2018, mainly because the salaries of male-dominated roles have jumped at a higher pace than that of female-dominated ones.

In Singapore, Citi’s female representation at assistant vice president to managing director level roles has increased from 32 per cent in December 2017 to 36 per cent in December 2019. 

“We are committed to meet our global goal of having women in Assistant Vice President to Managing Director level roles to at least 40 per cent by 2021,” it added.

Since the majority of its full-time hires are females, Citi has also rolled out programmes to support female employees through their pregnancy and transition into the workforce when they choose to return. 

In Asia in 2019, 55 per cent of Citi’s full-time hires were female, up 4 per cent from 2018. In Singapore, it was up 8 per cent.

Citi Singapore hired 28 per cent more women in global consumer banking last year than the year before, and 4 per cent more women in its institutional clients group.