In 2022, we have seen further action by the European Union to ensure equal pay and to combat the gender pay gap, by which is meant differences in the salaries earned by women and men.

These actions have resulted in the introduction of new information obligations imposed on banks and brokerage houses. Financial institutions are required to report information on the gender pay gap, as well as to calculate and report information on how much the pay gap is in their organizations.

Gender-neutral remuneration policy
 

Remuneration policies of banks and brokerage houses must be gender-neutral. As defined in CRD V, a gender-neutral remuneration policy means a policy based on the principle of equal pay for male and female employees for the same work or work of equal value. The provisions of Polish law on remuneration policies in banks and brokerage houses explicitly refer to equal pay regardless of gender. The obligation of financial institutions to respect the equal treatment of men and women is correlated with information obligations. 

Banks are required each year, by 31 January, to submit to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority information for the previous year on the gender pay gap. The Polish Financial Supervision Authority transmits information and data received from banks to the European Banking Authority. The EBA then uses the collected data to benchmark remuneration trends and practices at the European Union level.

Brokerage houses, in turn, are required to publish information on the gender pay gap (they usually do this on their websites). This information is collected and analyzed by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in order to monitor the trends and practices in brokerages' remuneration policies. 

Guidelines for sound remuneration policies
 

Applying a gender-neutral remuneration policy means for financial institutions that they should be able to demonstrate that all terms of employment affecting remuneration are independent of gender. The guidelines on sound remuneration policies issued by the European Banking Authority provide guidance to financial institutions and suggest what actions they should take to ensure that equal remuneration is indeed respected by them. 

According to the guidelines, financial institutions are required to monitor whether their remuneration policies are gender-neutral. To this end, they should adequately document the value of individual positions, e.g. by drawing up job descriptions or defining salary categories, for all employees or categories of employees, and indicate which positions are considered to be of equal value, e.g. by implementing a job classification system. Where a job classification system is used to determine remuneration, it should be based on the same criteria for men, women and non-binary people and be designed to exclude any discrimination, including on the basis of gender. 

In turn, the Supervisory Board or the Remuneration Committee (if established) should ensure that, at least annually, the remuneration policy and practice is also subject to a central and independent internal review of whether the policy is gender-neutral. 

The guidelines also explicitly indicate that, when determining employee compensations, financial institutions may take into account additional factors that result in differential remuneration. The key is that they should be applied in a gender-neutral manner. Additional aspects considered by institutions may include, for example: educational, vocational and training requirements, place of employment and the cost of living, or seniority.  

New EBA guidelines on gender pay gap
 

At the end of June 2022 the European Banking Authority published new guidelines for benchmarking compensation practices and the gender pay gap. The guidelines were prepared separately for banks and brokerage houses. New templates for collecting salary data have also been introduced. 

Financial institutions do not have much time to prepare for the application of the new guidelines. Both the guidelines for banks and those for brokerage houses are to be applied starting 31 December 2022. 

The subject of the guidelines is to determine how the relevant national authorities (in Poland it will be the PFSA) will collect data on the gender pay gap from banks and brokerage houses, and how the authorities will then submit the benchmarking data to the European Banking Authority.  

According to the new guidelines, the gender pay gap ratio means the difference in percentage between the average earnings of men and women.

Financial institutions will be required to calculate the gender pay gap taking into account employees hired at the end of the fiscal year. Management Board members should be included in the calculation. Supervisory board members, on the other hand, as a rule, should not be considered. In addition, the following are not included in the calculation: employees whose contract terminated during the fiscal year, employees hired in the last three months of the fiscal year, as well as employees who are out of work for a long time (e.g. on parental leave or long-term sick leave). 

To calculate the pay gap, financial institutions will have to consider employees' gross annual salaries (both fixed and variable) on a full-time equivalent basis. Both financial and non-financial components will be taken into account, with the proviso that non-financial benefits should be taken into account only to the extent that they constitute taxable income. 

Mandatory data collection as early as in 2023
 

Brokerage houses and banks will be required to report information on the pay gap every three years, starting in 2024 (by 15 June). This means that the first data collection should be for the fiscal year ending in 2023.