That male banking MD is earning a bonus 2x larger than your own

If you're a senior woman in the City of London, the chances are that you're underpaid. On average, your male managing director colleagues are earning twice as much as you are. So say the latest figures released by salary benchmarking firm Emolument.com.

While bonuses are diminutive, Emolument's data suggests that on average female MDs earn higher salaries than their male counterparts. Their figures refer only to front office staff, and reflect the median rather than the mean - there may be a few high-earning female outliers, but if you pick the mid-earning female banker and compare her to a male banker in the same position, she'll be on a slightly higher salary and a substantially lower bonus.

Why are women paid down? Explanations typically include their tendency to stay in one job for years on end meaning that banks don't have to pay to retain them. Then there's their lack of gumption when it comes to asking for a pay rise and their failure to play at internal politics. This last factor may be becoming more important: search firm Veni Partners claims politics were a crucial factor in the allocation of senior bonuses for 2013.

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