The average woman working in the UK financial sector earns about a fifth less than their male colleagues, a reflection of how the gender pay gap has stubbornly persisted even during a period when businesses pledged to address workplace inequity through diversity, equity and inclusion schemes.

Female employees in financial and insurance services earned around 78 pence for every pound that men do in 2024, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of government data. The pay gap shrunk shrunk by 1.2 percentage points since last year and is almost twice as high as the average across the whole UK workforce. The picture is particularly dire in investment banking, one of the top-paying corners of the industry.