Women at Glencore Oil Trading Unit Earn 28% Less Than Men

(Bloomberg) -- Women working in oil trading at Glencore Plc earn 28 percent less pay on average than men and receive bonuses that were 57 percent lower.

The income disparity, disclosed by the second-biggest independent oil trader under U.K. government-mandated pay gap reporting, underscores the lack of women in senior roles at the largest commodities trading houses. The vast majority of the 348 employees at Glencore’s London offices work in the firm’s oil trading operations, including the traders themselves and their support staff. While women account for about a third of that number, they comprise only 16 percent of the top quartile for pay, the figures show.

A study of the executive committee members of the top 40 commodity trading houses this week by Bloomberg News revealed that women account for just 4.2 percent of the senior executive roles, a level well below U.S. financial institutions and U.K. blue-chip companies.

The higher level of males seeking careers in commodities trading “has led to a greater number of men than women in senior and other positions that attract a higher level of pay,” Glencore said in a report accompanying its U.K. disclosure.

The Baar, Switzerland-based commodities trading and mining firm said it is “committed to supporting women going on and returning from maternity leave” and “taking an equal approach to family-friendly practices, including flexible working.”

Glencore’s oil trading business is centered in London while its metals and coal trading operations are based in Switzerland. While 40 percent of its trading employees are women, none of its executive committee members, who lead the firm’s day to day operations, are female.

Glencore’s 57 percent gender gap in oil trading bonus, compares with a 62 percent gap at the trading unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. That compares with a 28 percent gap for the rest of Shell’s British operations.

Overall bonus pay for women working at BP Plc was 64 percent less than men. The company does not break out separate data for the trading unit.

--With assistance from Agnieszka de Sousa and Jack Farchy

To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Hoffman in Geneva at ahoffman31@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Dylan Griffiths, Amanda Jordan

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