The new CEO of a British budget airline reduces his salary to match that of his female predecessor
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The CEO of British airline EasyJet, just warming his seat at the job he started in December, has agreed to take a pay cut – a gesture to fight gender pay gap.
Johan Lundgren is reducing his salary from £740,000 ($1.4m) to match that of his predecessor Carolyn McCall.
"To show my personal commitment I have asked the board to reduce my pay to match that of Carolyn's when she was at EasyJet," Lundgren said.
The airline reported the third-largest mean gender pay gap of any of the 704 employers yet to disclose their figures to the government. Average male salary was 52% higher than the average female salary.
Ninety-four percent of EasyJet’s pilots are men and the pay gap situation is due to women having lower-paying jobs such as flight attendants. Lundgren announced a plan to recruit more female pilots, with the aim of hitting 20% by 2020, reported news.com.au.
"I also want to affirm my own commitment to address the gender imbalance in our pilot community which drives our overall gender pay gap," he said.
Lundrgen’s move is being compared to Qantas boss Alan Joyce, whose income nearly doubled to AUD25million last year even as he signed an agreement to ensure equal pay for equal work.
