Women in HR earn on average the equivalent of £4,534 less than their male colleagues, according to the latest annual HR salary survey from XpertHR. Almost all of this pay gap across all levels is accounted for differences in pay at the highest level of the profession, with male HR Directors typically earning at least £19,000 more than their female counterparts, a gap of 13.8%.
At entry level, the gap is just over 1%, or around £223 a year. Women outnumber men by a factor of five to one at this level, but the position is reversed at HR Manager/Director level, where men make up around 40% of senior HR professionals.
Mark Crail, head of salary surveys for XpertHR, said:
‘Employers are going to find it difficult to justify data that suggests the gender pay gap can be accounted for largely by having a disproportionate number of men at senior levels earning disproportionately large salaries compared with women in equally senior roles. The figures here show that HR is failing to put its own house in order, and I fully expect the picture to be far worse for other professional groups. The data also reveals that while women outnumber men by three to one in the profession as a whole, men make up a much higher proportion of senior HR managers.’