An analysis of pension funds reveals that women make up about one third of the management in larger companies.
In addition to environmental factors, one of the components of pension funds’ sustainability is the promotion of equal opportunities for men and women. For instance, SEB’s pension funds monitor two indicators — the share of women in the management bodies of companies within the investment portfolio and the size of the wage gap, SEB Varahaldus’ fund manager Endriko Vorklaev said. Since the pension funds’ portfolios include stakes in thousands of companies worldwide, such indicators reflect average sizes.
“For example, in companies included in SEB’s second and third pillar portfolios, the share of women in management bodies is on average about 34 percent, and the wage gap is about 5 percent, which is how much men’s salaries exceed women’s in similar positions,” Vorklaev said.
He added that these figures alone may not be sufficient for drawing conclusions. One approach is to compare them with global securities market averages.
“Looking at the share of women in the management bodies of companies in SEB’s pension funds’ portfolios, there is a bit of room for improvement: the portfolio’s average share is about 34 percent, while it is about 35 percent in the stock markets and about 41 percent in the bond markets. The situation with the wage gap is better than the market indices on average — SEB’s average is about 5 percent, the stock market average is about 6 percent, and the bond market average is almost 12 percent,” he said.
The source of the data is ISS Global, an international player specialized in the collection and systematization of sustainability data.
Vorklaev noted that studies show that companies that consistently and systematically focus on sustainability are more successful in the long run than those that do not. Thus, there is no need to choose between productivity and sustainability.
Source: BNS
(Reproduction of BNS information in mass media and other websites without written consent of BNS is prohibited.)