Anyone looking for an example of the gender pay gap, i.e. the difference in pay between men and women, should look to the UK: Female directors in the UK’s largest companies receive only a fraction of the salaries of their male colleagues. According to research by the New Street Consulting firm, the average salary of female directors on the FTSE 100 stock index is only £ 237,000. That’s just over a quarter of the £ 875,900 their male counterparts are receiving.
So it is also evident from the salaries that women have less influence in the economy than men – also in Great Britain.
On the one hand, directors of the large British companies are the top managers who make decisions on a full-time basis, like the members of the board of directors in the German system. On the other hand, there are also British directors whose roles correspond to those of the German supervisory boards, who have other full-time jobs and a control function in the corporations as a part-time job. The reason for the large pay gap between female and male directors is primarily due to the fact that the majority are women non-executive Hold positions that correspond to the supervisory board, and much less often get the better-paid and significantly more influential jobs on the board of directors or even become chief executive officer, i.e. CEO.
Companies would like to get rid of the Old Boys Club at the top
As for the number of women, a lot has changed in British companies in recent years: in January of this year around 34 percent of the directors in the broader FTSE were 350 women, in October 2015 the figure was only around 22 percent. If you really want to achieve equality, it is not enough just to focus on the percentage of women, said Claire Carter of New Street Consulting newspaper The Guardian. “The key is to ensure that women are given more leadership responsibility and are trained and prepared to take on this responsibility.” Most companies would like to get rid of the Old Boys Club at the top. “You need to check to see if there are any barriers preventing women from getting to the top of their company.”
If one only compares the board-like and supervisory board-like salaries with each other, there is still a large gender pay gap in the UK: Female non-executive directors in FTSE 100 companies receive an average of £ 104,800 per year, compared to £ 170,400 for men. When it comes to board members, the difference is even bigger: female executive directors receive an average of £ 1.5 million, their male colleagues £ 2.5 million a year.
In Germany, the situation is somewhat different: women on the boards of the 30 DAX companies earn more on average than their male colleagues – not including CEOs. According to a study by the German Association for Protection of Securities Ownership, Dax board members averaged 3.4 million euros in the past financial year, men to 2.9 million euros. Experts explain the difference with the fact that women are in the minority with less than 18 percent, but many companies are trying to get more women into top positions. This increases their market value. However, the numbers change significantly if you also include CEOs who earn significantly more than ordinary board members. In 2020 there was only one CEO in the Dax for a few months: Jennifer Morgan, who left SAP in April 2020. Since May 2021, Merck boss Belén Garijo has been the only woman at the top of a Dax group. The best earners in the Dax in 2020 were therefore consistently men. Linde boss Stephen Angel received 14 million euros, Christian Klein from SAP 8.4 million euros and Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess 7.9 million euros.
For supervisory board positions that are more comparable to the British non-executive directors, there is a statutory quota for women in large, listed companies in Germany. According to the Women in Supervisory Boards (FidAR) initiative from March, around 33 percent of all supervisory boards of the 186 German companies examined are women. On average, female supervisory board members in Germany receive a lower remuneration than supervisory board members because they too are less likely to chair the board and are less likely to be represented in important committees such as the executive committee.