Citigroup pays women 30% less than men

New York(CNN Business) Citigroup released a candid equal pay report showing that the median pay for female employees is nearly one-third less than it is for men.

The discovery was part of a pay equity review of Citi's 200,000-person global workforce. It found the globally, women are paid 71% of the median that mean earn. It also said that the median pay of its US minorities is 7% less than non-minorities.

The report focused on "raw pay," which gauges median total compensation when salaries aren't adjusted for seniority, job title or location.

If those factors were considered, Citi said women globally are paid nearly the same as men as are, and that the same applies when comparing US minorities non-minorities.

The disparity in the two statistics indicate that women are under-represented in high-ranking positions.

Citi reiterated its goal to boost the number of women and US minorities in senior roles at the bank, and said that doing so should help shrink the difference in its raw pay gap numbers.

It aims to bolster representation in high-ranking positions to at least 40% for women globally and 8% for black US employees within the next two years.

This year's larger analysis follows a similar report in 2018 that only examined 36% of its workforce spanning three countries.

Citi says that it was the first US bank to release a pay gap report last year. It was forced to do so because of both a new UK law and a push from activist shareholder Arjuna Capital.

Natasha Lamb, Arjuna Capital's managing partner, praised this year's report.

"This new level of transparency provides investors with baseline metrics to understand broad pay equity at the company, that is the difference between what men make and what women make, and what minorities and non-minorities make on a median, unadjusted basis," Lamb said.

There is a pay gap in most fields, but it's particularly stark in finance.

"In finance, women are essentially being as productive, but they're not getting the payoff because they're not getting onto the accounts or the clients that they're needing to," says Pamela Coukos, former senior adviser at the Department of Labor and CEO of Working Ideal, a company that provides consulting on inclusive workplaces previously told CNN Business.