UK Insurers Narrow Gender Pay Gap Among Non-Executive Directors

• The gender pay gap in the UK insurance industry was narrowed to almost zero for non-executive directors
• This put the insurance industry at the forefront of the majority of its global counterparts

UK financial services companies made significant strides toward closing the gender pay gap for non-executive directors. Of the major markets in the world, they positioned themselves as the leaders in this area, with a closing of the gender pay gap for non-executive directors of nearly 0 percent.

The EY Global Financial Services Boardroom Monitor reported that the gender pay gap for non-executive directors in the UK financial services sector decreased from 40 percent in 2020 to 29 percent by the end of 2024, which was the most significant decrease of any major European and North American markets. Still, the overall number masks substantial differences between sectors.

The gender pay gap for the insurance sector in the UK decreased from an average of 28 percent in 2020 to an average of 3 percent in 2024, although the wealth and asset management sectors had also experienced a reduction in their gender pay gaps from 52 percent to 21 percent, while the banking sector saw an increase from 34 percent to 45 percent.

The increase in the banking sector has been responsible for creating a large portion of the overall gender pay gap.

However, despite this progress, the 29 percent cross-sector pay gap still represented an average annual difference of around US$102,000 between male and female non-executive directors in the UK.

This was still higher than the gap in the United States, Canada, Germany, and France, and second only to Switzerland among the major markets.

EY UK and Ireland financial services leader Martina Keane commented on the findings, saying that while the figures showed progress, they also showed the challenges that still need to be overcome.

She pointed out that UK financial services companies had been quicker than some global rivals to close pay gaps at board level, but that more work was needed to achieve gender pay equality and drive the long-term growth of the industry.

The results for insurance companies show good progress towards achieving gender pay equity and a more difficult environment to achieve overall remuneration.

This is very important for the boards at insurance companies because they are dealing with issues such as cyber-security, digital change, artificial intelligence, as well as systems upgrades.

On the other hand, the average remuneration of non-executive directors with technology experience fell by 15 percent during this same period. In addition, female non-executive directors with technology experience are still earning 33 percent less than their male counterparts.

This gap has become somewhat smaller since 2020. The results show that there is still a challenge for insurers to achieve sustained momentum towards gender pay equity while maintaining competitive remuneration in order to retain talented women who are non-executive directors with technology expertise.