THE IMPACT OF GENDER PAY GAP ON WOMEN
EMPLOYEES IN THE UK’S BANKING SECTOR
MSc International Human Resource Management
2020-2021
Student name: Andreea Banica
Student ID: 200880259
Supervisor: Rowland Curtis
Date of submission: 28th January 2022
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Rowland Curtis, who provided
valuable support during the advisory sessions, which further enabled the completion of this
research. Secondly, I would like to thank participants for showing interest and being willing
to be part of this study, as without them I wouldn’t have been able to finalize it. I would also
like to thank my family, friends and especially my husband for showing understanding and
providing moral support during the academic year and also while developing this research.
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ABSTRACT
Giving the huge gender pay gap in the UK’s banking sector, this empirical study aims to
evaluate the effects of GPG on the women working in this industry. In order to ensure a
good association of different methodological elements of this thesis, qualitative data was
collected using semi-structured interview and was analyzed in the light of interpretivism
paradigm and inductive approach. The interview questions were inspired from themes
found in the literature, but also by the objectives of the study and research question. I
gathered information from 10 women working in five of the most popular banks in the UK,
in order to evaluate what are the effects of gender pay gap on their motivation and job
satisfaction. Using thematic analysis, four main themes were found:
Unawareness of gender pay gap
Decrease in motivation
Decrease in job satisfaction
Any future changes in the gender pay gap will influence the motivation and job
satisfaction
Further quantitative research is recommended in order to gather more reliable and
objective information and also for having a bigger sample size which will help with the
generalization of findings for the whole sector.
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