Equal Pay Day: what ABN AMRO is doing to close the gender pay gap

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  • Diversity and inclusion

It’s Equal Pay Day. A day that deserves our attention, seeing that to this day, women in the Netherlands receive less pay than men. Worse still, the gender pay gap in our country has actually widened in the past two years. Being the employer of a workforce of over 20,000, ABN AMRO is pursuing an active policy to close the gender pay gap. Because we believe equal opportunities and equal pay go together. How we do it? Read on to learn more.

Internal study

At ABN AMRO, we carry out an equal pay study once a year. It started a few years ago as an investigation of the gender pay gap. In 2022, we also started factoring in employees’ ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and looking at the difference in remuneration between men and women in senior management (where the collective labour agreement does not apply). So we know where we stand.

The results highlight where there’s room for improvement and help us develop new initiatives to promote equal pay.

The main conclusions of the 2023 study are:

  • Women and men working for ABN AMRO at the same job level under the collective labour agreement (CLA) receive equal pay. That said, men are still overrepresented in the higher salary scales. To remedy this, the bank is actively encouraging the promotion of women to higher-paying roles.

  • ABN AMRO employees with CLA-governed jobs receive equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, regardless of their ethic or cultural background. We do see differences in the way pay-related policies are applied, depending on the ethnic or cultural background of the employee. These time-related differences are found around starting salaries, promotions, regular pay rises and variable pay rises. We intend to study the differences we’ve discovered more closely to better understand and manage them.

  • For employees with above-CLA salaries, a new remuneration policy was introduced on 1 January 2022. This new policy is already making a difference: both in 2022 and in 2023, we see a steadily narrowing gender pay gap. The differences that still exist are smaller than last year.

To learn more, read the study.

Harmonising intern allowances

ABN AMRO recruits between 400 and 450 interns every year. On average, they stay with the bank for five or six months. As of this year, all ABN AMRO interns will receive the same allowance, regardless of their educational background. On 1 September, these allowances were harmonised and raised to 750 euros.

More women in top positions

ABN AMRO has set itself a target of women comprising at least 35 percent of middle management and at least 35 percent of senior management in 2025. Our subtop is currently 40 percent female. In the Supervisory Board, half of the members are women. In the Executive Board, three of the eight members are women.

Unconscious bias training

Managers and other employees are trained to recognise unconscious bias that could impact promotions, pay rises and career opportunities.

Representation of colleagues with different cultural backgrounds

We have also set targets for greater representation of colleagues with different cultural backgrounds. In 2025, we want these colleagues to constitute at least nine percent of middle management and at least eight percent of senior management.

Mentoring programmes

To support the promotion of women and colleagues with different cultural backgrounds, we have set up various mentoring programmes. Through workshops, networking events and individual coaching, we help talented employees from these groups to accelerate their professional growth within the bank.