Goldman Sachs reports gender pay gap of 55.5 percent

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People walk past the entrance to the Goldman Sachs investment offices in Peterborough Court on October 10, 2016 in London, England.

Goldman Sachs on Friday reported a mean gender pay gap in Britain for its international business of 55.5 percent and a mean bonus gap for the unit of 72.2 percent.

That gulf in pay comes close to the 59 percent gap revealed on Thursday by HSBC the biggest yet reported by a British financial firm according to government data.

Thousands of large UK employers have been ordered to disclose their gender pay gaps by April, almost 50 years on from the passage of Britain’s equal pay act.

Goldman Sachs said its gap reflected the fact that there were more men than women in senior positions at the firm.

It also reported a mean gender pay gap of 16.1 percent and a mean bonus gap of 32.5 percent in Goldman Sachs (UK) SVC Limited, which it said employs around 1,600 individuals from non-revenue divisions.

The bank employs 6,000 people in London. The remainder of its UK employees work in its international business.

Other large banks have also been disclosing their gender pay gaps ahead of the April deadline set last year by Prime Minister Theresa May.

The continued gulf in earnings between men and women has attracted significant public attention over the past year or so.

The gender pay gap measures the difference between the average salary of men and women, calculated on an hourly basis.