By Joshua Franklin
April 3 (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP, the world'slargest manager of alternative assets, on Tuesday reported anaverage gender pay gap of 30 percent at its
Blackstone said on Tuesday that the gap chiefly comes frommen occupying the bulk of high-paying investment jobs at thefirm.
"As these roles typically attract higher rewards thannon-investment roles, this increases the average pay for maleemployees,"
"In contrast, less than a fifth of our female employees areinvestment professionals and nearly three quarters are insupport and administrative roles."
The disclosure was made to comply with a
The disparity at Blackstone was far greater in bonuses,which often go to more senior employees, with a mean gap of 75percent.
Blackstone said it was confident women and men were paidequally for equivalent jobs across its business.
But the numbers underscore how private equity remains amale-dominated industry.
Gender diversity has improved since private equity rose toprominence on Wall Street in the 1980s and Blackstone now staffsaround 40 percent of its incoming analyst class with women, asource familiar with the matter said. Analyst classes can filterup into more senior positions.
Nevertheless, top management at the largest firms, whichinclude Blackstone, Apollo Global Management LLC, KKR &Co LP and Bain Capital LLC, are largely male and thelack of diversity is often visible at industry events.
Speaking at an annual private equity get-together in
The #MeToo movement has also put new momentum behind effortsto have companies, especially in finance, disclose details abouttheir workforce diversity.
Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch,Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley last month allrevealed large gender pay gaps in their British operations.
In January, Blackstone agreed to buy a majority stake in theFinancial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp, the parent of Reuters News, in a
(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in
