Insurance giant Aviva has become one of the first companies in the region to reveal its gender pay gap under new legislation.
The company has revealed a difference in pay between men and women of 28.5% in its first report under new gender pay rules.
Aviva also saw a mean gap in bonuses of 57.2% despite a higher proportion of women (93%) receiving one than men (91%) – which the business said was down to more men in senior roles with larger bonus payments attached.
Nearly 70% of senior management are men as well as 62% of middle management and specialists, which Aviva said showed its hiring policies had not done enough to buck the trend within financial industries.
Gender pay gap reporting shows what companies pays men and women across the organisation – not whether men and women are paid equally for doing the same job.
Aviva said it wanted to close the gap through equal parental leave, a women in leadership programme aimed at achieving better balance in top jobs, recruiting more women, flexible working and exploring ways of encouraging talented women back into the industry.
In November, the company launched its new parental leave policy, which offers all parents the same leave.
Group chief risk officer Angela Darlington said: 'As a woman in financial services, I'm not proud of our gender pay gap figures. We're already doing a lot to increase the number of women in our senior roles but it's clearly not enough.
'This report sets out what we're going to focus on to make the biggest difference and encourage diversity of all kinds across all of Aviva. We all have a role to play in this, every single day.'
Aviva employs 15,868 people in the UK, including 5,000 in Norwich. Of the 16% of its workforce which is part-time, some 91% are women.
Andy Briggs, chief executive of UK Insurance, said: 'As leaders in the organisation, it's down to us to take this challenge on and to focus on how we create the right environment within the Aviva Group so we do get a higher proportion of women in senior roles.'
All companies with more than 249 employees as of April 5 2017 are required to report mean and median gender pay gaps, bonus gaps as well as the proportion receiving bonuses and in each pay band.
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