UPDATE 1-Goldman Sachs reports gender pay gap of 55.5 percent

LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs on Fridayreported a mean gender pay gap in Britain for its internationalbusiness of 55.5 percent and a mean bonus gap for the unit of72.2 percent.

That gulf in pay comes close to the 59 percent gap revealedon Thursday by HSBC - the biggest yet reported by aBritish financial firm according to government data.

Thousands of large UK employers have been ordered todisclose their gender pay gaps by April, almost 50 years on fromthe passage of Britain's equal pay act.

Goldman Sachs said its gap reflected the fact that therewere more men than women in senior positions at the firm.

It also reported a mean gender pay gap of 16.1 percent and amean bonus gap of 32.5 percent in Goldman Sachs (UK) SVCLimited, which it said employs around 1,600 individuals fromnon-revenue divisions.

The bank employs 6,000 people in London. The remainder ofits UK employees work in its international business.

Other large banks have also been disclosing their gender paygaps ahead of the April deadline set last year by Prime MinisterTheresa May.

The continued gulf in earnings between men and women hasattracted significant public attention over the past year or so.

The gender pay gap measures the difference between theaverage salary of men and women, calculated on an hourly basis.

In Goldman Sachs' international business, 83 percent of thegroup earning the highest hourly pay were men, the bank said,while 62.4 percent of those on the lowest hourly pay were women.

This compared with 77.4 percent men in the highest paidgroup in Goldman Sachs (UK) SVC Limited, and 48.9 percent womenin the lowest paid group.

The Wall Street bank said it is committed to promotingdiversity and inclusion at all levels of the firm. On Thursday,it said it wanted women to make up half of its global workforce,starting with a target of 50 percent of its new analysts beingwomen by 2021.(Reporting by Emma RumneyEditing by Carolyn Cohn and Hugh Lawson)