Financial adviser Addidi Wealth is calling on the government to "name and shame" companies with the biggest pay gap between their top and bottom paid employees, in an effort to tackle inequality in the financial services industry.
The calls were made in a manifesto published yesterday (March 7) titled Change the Culture of Wealth, and coincided with today's International Women’s Day.
The adviser claimed accountability in the culture of wealth remained low despite successive legislation, and called on the government to publish the details of companies with the biggest pay gaps.
Addidi Wealth expects this method of "naming and shaming" to encourage companies to bring the ratio between their top and bottom paid employees to below 1/50.
According to the Women in Finance Inquiry published by the government last year, the financial services industry tops all other sectors with the largest median gender pay gap among full time employees at 31 per cent.
Addidi also wants the use of non-disclosure agreements to be banned in grievance and conduct issues, a practice that has received widespread criticism in recent years for being abused to intimidate whistleblowers, or conceal harassment and discrimination incidents.
Earlier this month the government proposed to tighten the rules around non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality clauses, including enshrining in law for the first time that individuals cannot be prevented from sharing information about crimes, harassment or discrimination with the police.
Anna Sofat, chief executive of Addidi Wealth, said: "The financial services industry sits at the heart of our relationship with money, and whilst money is neutral, what we do with it isn’t.
"Even the regulator has admitted that culture failure has been at the root of many of the failings causing consumer harm."
However, Ms Sofat said the industry had been great at innovating in the past and would be able to transform itself into a healthy wealth culture.
She said: "Over the last few years, I think we have learnt to be a bit more humble and appreciate the inequalities we have created."
The manifesto has also asked the government to require companies to report any payments overdue by 50 days or more and take action to make it easier for SMEs to take companies to court for late payment.
Furthermore Addidi Wealth asked a minimum of 5 per cent of government contracts be granted to 50 per cent female or black, asian and minority ethnic owned businesses, in an effort to shift the balance towards greater diversity.
In 2016 HM Treasury introduced the Women in Finance Charter, a voluntary initiative intended to improve the representation of women in finance.
But Ms Sofat said Addidi's manifesto went beyond gender and headed to the "heart of the problem", which was inequality.
She said: "The Women in Finance Charter was an important step forward, but who is making sure change is happening?
"It’s easy to sign up for something, harder to know who is really making [changes]. How will we find out as no monitoring or reporting is forthcoming?"
rachel.addison@ft.com
