Monzo's Gender Pay Gap

Hey everyone :wave:

We’ve just published our gender pay gap figures for this year and the last one. We weren’t yet required to publish our figures in 2017 as we weren’t big enough at the time. But to keep us transparent and accountable, we’re sharing them too.

Give it a read, check out the work we’ve done so far, what we plan to do next, and why we believe closing the pay gap matters.

In short, our numbers show we have a lot more work to do.

We’d love to carry on the discussion with you, so please let us know what you think :mega:


Just a quick note: We know that a lot of people feel strongly about this subject (myself included!) So we’ll be watching this thread closely to make sure it stays on-topic and within our Code of Conduct guidelines :heart:

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I’m fully supportive of narrowing the gender pay gap. However, I feel the key when discussing it (which the article hits on perfectly) is that different gendered people at the same role at the same level should be paid the same.

The identification of Monzo to realise that they don’t have enough senior people that identify as female is good, however is the difficulty in hiring females at those levels simply because there aren’t many candidates at that level, or of the applicants applying the males are stronger?

I’m just curious… :thinking:

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That’s a legal requirement in the UK

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Some of it is definitely down to having a smaller applicant pool. However, as a society we have to ask ourselves why that is and are we okay with those reasons. If it’s a role that women just don’t want to do - that’s okay. If it’s a role that women are unable to achieve because from an early age they’re directed away from it or because of caregiving responsibilities they’re not put on that track, that’s a problem that we need to solve.

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Do you publish any data for those who do not identify with the gender binary?

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Presumably since the law doesn’t require this then no.

It would be interesting to know how many people do not identify with the traditional genders in a company but I doubt many companies would release that data (if they even have it) without being legally compelled to.

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We do publish those numbers, although @nuttyneil is right that this doesn’t cover pay gap https://monzo.com/blog/2018/03/22/diversity-and-inclusion/

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Brilliant :grinning:

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Good to see the detailed diversity stats, and open discussion on the topic is great progress.

A bit surprising, you’ve recruited most within the last 12 months, so at the point of making the salary/pay offers how have you come to decide to offer less?

It’s been hot topic for sometime, surely this type of equality drive should of been part of the hiring decisions you should of been considering ?

I might be wrong or misunderstanding but of not expected such a gap.

As mentioned above it seems potentially that there aren’t people applying for the role that are either (a) from other genders or (b) aren’t stronger than their male counterparts.

I don’t at all think that Monzo aren’t aware of the diversity.

What you’re seeing is a gap in terms of averages of payment, with there not being as many senior people that identify as female the resultant gap is not a surprise. It’s difficult to close that gap if there aren’t females at the higher pay levels - as mentioned in the blog post.

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At the risk of bringing back painful memories An Update on Diversity and Inclusion at Monzo

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We don’t at this time. At the moment we do not publicly post individual salaries at Monzo and including this data might personally identify people.

We’re confident that we pay equally for equal work, so it isn’t that people who identify as women are offered or paid less for doing the same role as a man.

Instead, what our gender pay gap reporting shows is a disparity in how much men and women across all roles are paid on average. Women are not well-represented in the better-paid, senior or engineering roles, which brings the average for women’s pay across the company down.

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Surely if you are basing your “gender” pay gap on those who identify as men and women, as opposed to those who are of the sex male and female you risk making your statistics meaningless.

The root cause of the “gender” pay gap is female biology.

As an extreme unrealistic example, if all of your top positions were held by men and transwomen, and all of the lower paid roles were held by women and transmen then based on self-identified gender your company would have perfect gender inequality, but appalling levels of sex equality (which is what the gender pay gap is supposed to measure).

TL;DR The gender pay gap is actually about measuring the inequalities that primarily negatively impact females - it’s not about how you identify.

I really couldn’t disagree more. Female is female no matter if you were born that way or not

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female
ˈfiːmeɪl/
adjective
1.
of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) which can be fertilized by male gametes.

Furthermore both sex, and gender reassignment are separate protected characteristics, which exist as these are groups particularly vulnerable to harassment, discrimination etc.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/part/2

My understanding is that the gender pay gap is for measuring the impact of the protected characteristic of sex.

Monzos diversity stats (mentioned) upthread do correctly take account of how people identify.

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I think that’s an assumption that’s not correct.

Any inequality faced by women is faced by all women and we need to resolve that. An inclusive work place where every person has the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability and have the opportunity to succeed is the goal.

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We’ll only work with recruiters who can:

  • Produce gender balanced shortlists

This bit concerns me. A lazy recruiter will just separate males and females and ensure there are equal numbers in order to “tick the box”. A responsible recruiter will diversify where they post jobs to naturally get a more even spread.

Will you be monitoring recruiters’ practises?

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I would argue that root cause of the “gender” pay gap is male biology.

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