Female Millionaires on the Rise!
Female Millionaires on the Rise!
The number of women earning more than £1 million a year in the UK is growing three times faster than the number of male millionaires. This is the latest sign that the gender pay gap continues to slowly narrow. However, the World Economic Forum does not believe that gender equality is achievable for another 81 years.
The latest available data from HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs)– from the end of March 2012- shows that 900 women declared earnings of more than £1 Million, which is a 29 per cent increase on the previous year, while the number of men declaring a millionaire’s income grew by just a tenth.
However, despite the slower growth rate among men, there are still five times more men than women who have joined the millionaires club. The club has 10,200 male members which is more than 11 times the number of female members.
The number of female taxpayers in the higher band also grew faster than their male equivalent, by 17 per cent, to 1.21 million, compared to the 13 per cent growth to 3.18 million, showing that men are still vastly outnumbering the women.
Gary Robins, the Director of Radius Equity, the investment provider that analyses these numbers, has stated that the “encouraging” results highlight the “growing success of all UK business women, not just the elite.” In the UK there are almost one million small – and medium- sized businesses led by women. According to the UK Government’s Business is Great campaign, which has a website dedicated to female-led start-ups, the UK would have an additional one million entrepreneurs if women set up businesses at the same rate as men. Ms. Julie Deane, the Founder and CEO of The Cambridge Satchel Company established in 2008 with £600 is now worth £10 million.
In 2013 a report, which was put together by the wealth consultancy company, Wealthinsight, found that just 11.4 per cent of millionaires in the UK are women, with 14 other countries performing better than Britain. This ratio is not much worse than the average spread of wealth among the uber-rich: women account for 12 per cent of the world’s billionaires according to the Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census. Although the faster rate for female high-earners suggests that steps are being made to combat the difference in pay between men and women.
The gender pay gap in the UK fell to a record low in 2014, which is now the smallest gap since records began in 1997. Women aged between 22 and 39 earning more than their male counterparts, although the average full-time female worker still earns 9.4 per cent less than her male colleagues . After reaching the age of 39 the gap between male and females is considerably higher, which the Fawcett Society, the women’s charity behind the “this is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt, calls this age discrepancy “the motherhood penalty.” Although Jo Swinson, the Minister for Women and Equalities and Business, said that the “vision has to be eliminating the pay gap completely.”
Current female millionaires should be an inspiration to all women for gender equality and this is something that should brought to the attention of young girls much earlier in life.
Nina is in her Honours year at The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow studying History. She loves keeping fit and healthy at the gym and singing to her hearts content. Because of Nina's love of all things history related, she has a passion for reading, writing and researching. Nina is the Editor-in-Chief for an online magazine for female students at Strathclyde called Her Campus Strath and wants to continue her passion for writing after graduation.