Banking, finance, and taxes

Mastercard Closing the Pay Gap for Women

Chris Lange

Published: February 13, 2018 11:55 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:26 am

Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA), in its commitment to gender equality, recently released a report updating the public on its gender equity practices. This is part of the firm’s movement to be more inclusive and diverse, not to mention transparent.

According to the credit card firm, about 40% of its global workforce is female. And while Mastercard believes there is more work to be done for increasing the percentage of women holding senior positions at the company, the trend is positive. Currently, senior management is 30% female, an increase from 26% in 2013.

Also, 39% of the female workforce received a lateral or upward promotion in 2017.

Separately, Mastercard investigated its compensation for employees. The firm found via a third party that globally women at the company earn $0.991 to every $1.000 earned by men for equal performance at the same level. Although this number is off, the company is taking steps to close the gap.

One of the firm’s objectives is to recruit from diverse candidate slates, and as a general matter, hiring managers start from a diverse slate of candidates. Last year 83% of slates globally had at least one female candidate. As a result, in 2017 40% of global hires and 55% of university hires were women.

Additionally, Mastercard is involved in a number of other external partnerships and programs designed to facilitate gender diversity. For example, its board chair and other Mastercard management are members of the 30% Club and 25% of its board of directors are female.

According to the Mastercard report:

Gender equality is the foundational core of our commitment to building an inclusive, high-performing culture at the company. We remain dedicated to maintaining practices designed to ensure there is equal pay for equal performance at the same level.

Shares of Mastercard were last seen up about 0.5% at $169.01 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $192.83 and a 52-week trading range of $107.76 to $177.11.