Monzo's Gender Pay Gap

You repeatedly use our posts to infer some kind of ulterior motive and “mind read” our intentions. It’s a devious slant on the “So you’re saying” made infamous by Cathy Newman.

I respectfully ask you to stop doing this.

And sure, in an ideal world a company has an unlimited duration in which to source a fully equal and gender balanced shortlist.

What if the Monzo Nursery Manager resigns suddenly and all of a sudden there is nobody to manage the team of 5 nursery staff that Monzo depends on to get their new mothers and fathers back to the workplace.

Does the Monzo recruitment team still spend as long as it takes to find the 5 perfect male candidates to go with the 5 perfect female candidates that they found in week 1?

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I lament the 21st century if it means replacing perceived historic discrimination with actual discrimination in the here and now.

What a desperately sad state of affairs, and what damage this will do to generations of male and female computer scientists.

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Yes.

So the nursey is left unmanaged, rota’s are left unfinished, the staff don’t know who to turn to all whilst the recruitment team ignore the multiple female candidates that could do the job in pursuit of the scarce male candidates.

I’m afraid this is totally unrealistic and unfeasible.

P.S my final comment on the matter:

Positive discrimination means treating one person more favourably than another on the ground of that individual’s sex, race, age, marital status or sexual orientation. While, in this situation, the individual’s characteristic is being taken into account to benefit that individual, typically because that individual belongs to a group that is often treated unfairly or under-represented in the workforce, this is nevertheless unlawful discrimination.

In contrast to positive discrimination, limited forms of “positive action” are permitted under all strands of the discrimination legislation. So, employers are allowed to offer disadvantaged groups access to facilities for training and to encourage job applications from under-represented groups. However, they are not permitted to discriminate in the selection of candidates for employment or promotion or the terms and conditions on which they are employed.

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I mean no offence here, but did you join the forum 3 days ago, just to argue against giving women a fair shot?

There is plenty that needs to be done, Monzo have decided to do what they can, which is highlighted by their blog post - Full credit to them.

This is the tip of the iceberg, and much more needs to be done.

I am grateful for those who are making a stand today, so my daughter can have the same opportunities as my son when they both reach the employment age.

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Monzo is systematically stacking the odds against your son. If I were you, I wouldn’t be happy with that, but each to their own.

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If you’re paying that much attention to when I first posted then surely you noticed the first paragraph of my first post which contradicts your accusation entirely?

“It’s reassuring to see that people acknowledge that equality of opportunity is always preferable to equality of outcome - which can only lead to unfair discrimination eg on the basis of gender, race or other characteristics.”

I’ve posted the law on positive discrimination and positive action for you. Nothing more needs to be said. You straw man/person my posts and now you’re veering towards ad hominem territory by taking it personal.

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It was a genuine question - Thanks for clarifying.

As I said, I see why you are saying what you are saying - I happen to disagree with it, and I agree with Monzo’s stance as well.

Luckily we live in a democracy.

Have a good day.

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No, luckily for me and unfortunately for you, we live in a society where positive discrimination is still discrimination and illegal. Lol

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I disagree.

I was born in the 60’s but do not discriminate and in fact the majority of people I have employed have been women as I felt them best for the job due to their abilities.

While in some industries, garage mechanics as an example, you may be surrounded by men, in most white collar or office jobs most people are surrounded by both genders not just men.

I feel you can not tar all manager or HR or other decision makers with the same brush.

Some will be discriminatory and others won’t. It is down to the individual not the role.

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You are absolutely right - It was a very wide generalisation to try and support a broad topic!

Apologies to all those good, honest hiring managers!

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Chris,

I think this response is somewhat emotional and not based in fact.
In my field (engineering at Monzo), almost everyone is male. So what you are saying feels very far removed from the truth. It is, in my view, farcical to suggest that there’s any discrimination against men at the company or during the application process. I’m looking around me right now.

I’ll say it again. Monzo has never selected a candidate on the basis of their gender and never will. We are trying to diversify our applicant pool, and it is working.

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If Monzo has outlined all these several times and people still insist on wilfully interpreting what they think Monzo is doing, there’s no convincing them. It works for Monzo, and an overwhelming majority of users and staff agree with it. Some people even take pay cuts to join Monzo because they love the working environment/ its message/ ideals.

I was initially quite discouraged by this thread and didn’t want to respond because I thought what even was the point, but I’m really heartened to see people of all ages/ backgrounds/ genders stick up for this instead of it seeming like some agenda only “rabid feminists” eschew.

I engaged with similar posts before but this just seems so pointless now. It’s always the same people and mysterious users who come out of the woodwork to create new accs to debate on this for anonymity :eyes:

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You (Monzo staff) keep saying it, but some people never listen

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Except he wasn’t saying what is happening at Monzo right now, just taking “we will only work with recruiters who can produce gender balanced shortlists” to its logical conclusion and flagging what would be illegal and discriminatory hiring practices if followed to the letter

If you’re not selecting on gender, then how else do you achieve a “gender balanced shortlist” for jobs where there is an oversupply of one gender?

There is literally no other feasible way of achieving gender balance in those jobs unless you’re discriminating/selecting by gender.

Maybe the blog should be updated with a clarification?

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:point_up: this.

Firstly, only one of those statements can be true, unless you’re admitting that despite “diversifying the applicant pool,” you’re finding that men are the best candidates?

Secondly, if you’re trying to “diversify your applicant pool” then you admit to positive discrimination, which is illegal.

You should be trying to get the best candidates in your pool regardless of any of their identity characteristics. You don’t do that by spending time hunting for one particular gender or race. However you try to justify this, it remains unethical.

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This isn’t true. We can be getting more female applicants, but the hiring process takes a while, so we don’t feel the effects straight away.

This isn’t true either. Encouraging more women to apply for a position is absolutely not illegal.

I would argue that not doing this is unethical. It’s totally wrong that women are uncomfortable working in tech because it’s so male-dominated. You are unlikely to change your mind on this, but I just wanted to post to support Monzo’s position wholeheartedly.

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That would be true. But Monzo is not “encouraging more women”

It is instructing recruiters to shortlist by gender.

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Source?

Also, why you so angry?

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