CII head calls for more action on gender pay disparity

The gender pay gap across the insurance sector has narrowed by a small margin in the past year.

This is according to analysis by the CII (Chartered Insurance Institute) of the gender pay gap data which the government reported in April 2018 comparing it with the same month in 2019.

It analysed data for the companies made up of insurers, intermediaries, loss adjusters, financial advisers and other related organisations to highlight trends.

Sian Fisher, chief executive at the CII told Insurance Times: “One of the big outcomes was the realisation that an average woman at the end of her life is in a significantly less advantageous position as opposed to her male counterpart.

“The average woman’s pension pot is only one fifth of a man’s, and 48% of women have no pension at all other from the minimum state pension because they have dropped out of workforce, are not paying national insurance, haven’t got a workplace pension.

“When you talk about poverty in old age, there are a lot of women disproportionately in this bracket. When you champion diversity there’s a real society level effect that comes with not acknowledging it.

“So many of the things are linked to earnings, so you are creating this massive skew, so a lot of it is to be totally transparent about how much of a skew we have ended up with and then to ask the question – what are we going to do about it?”

The government are looking at pensions and part-time working in regard to the gender pay gap.

The CII is working with the iCAN network on a role models’ publication to promote diversity in the sector.