Franklin Templeton Commits To Diversity Initiatives As Group Reveals 75% Of Top UK Earners Are Male

New legislation requires all UK entities with more than 250 employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. 

While none of Franklin Templeton's UK legal entities exceed this figure individually, it has a total of 371 UK employees and has chosen to voluntarily disclose gender pay gap data for Franklin Templeton Investments UK and two of its largest subsidiary companies.

Within Franklin Templeton Investments UK, the breakdown of staff is 206 male to 165 females, as at 5 April 2017.

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The report said the mean hourly pay gap between genders is 28%, while the median hourly pay gap is 31.4%. Its bonus pay gap is mean 66.8%, and 54.2% median.

However, the proportion of employees receiving a bonus is 93.2% of all males and 94.3% of all women.

Pay quartiles

When salaries are broken down into quartiles, 69% of the bottom quartile - receiving the lowest pay - are women, while 75% of all top quartile earners are men.

Paul Brady, board director at Franklin Templeton Investment Management who is responsible for diversity and inclusion efforts, said in the report: "We recognise that a gender pay gap exists among our UK employees, with the figures reflecting a lesser number of women in the top quartiles of our pay distribution.

"This is predominantly due to the higher proportion of senior investment management and distribution positions occupied by men, something we are very much aware of and continue to address through recruitment and other initiatives across our business, some of which are mentioned in this report.

"We are confident that our gender pay gap does not result from a disparity in pay levels for equivalent roles. We have a formalised pay and grading structure, assessed to be gender neutral, and we are committed to ensuring compliance with equal pay legislation."

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Indeed, the report also highlights some positive hiring trends including the overall percentage of female employees in the UK had increased from 41% in 2013 to 44% in 2016.

Greg Johnson, CEO of parent company Franklin Resources, recently joined a coalition of business leaders committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, including gender.

He was recently quoted as saying: "I believe it is the individual differences and the wealth of perspectives brought by a diverse workforce that enables our company to deliver excellent results and client service. A key component is supporting and encouraging employees to bring their whole selves to work. And while we have made progress, we know we have more to accomplish."

The group said it has laid out a number of initiatives  to create a more diverse workforce, including setting up business resource groups to create a "culture of mutual respect, as well as enabling networking and increasing opportunities to impact business results and community involvement".

It is also supporting women returning from maternity leave with enhanced childcare leave, childcare finders, flexible working hours, support through an Employee Assistance Program and enhanced maternity/parental leave.