Leading investment bank Goldman Sachs is to offer its London staff “emergency nannies” as part of an initiative to cut the company’s 55% gender pay gap.
The US-based multinational firm will give each of its 6,000 workers in the UK up to 20 days of emergency care per dependant each year, the London Evening Standard reports. This includes an in-home nanny service for ill children who are unable to attend school, and carers will be made available to take care of adult dependents.
In a message to its employees, the company said that it “recognises that backup care is an essential benefit when your usual care arrangements break down”.
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The firm hopes the initiative will reduce the burden of family care, which typically falls on women, as part of a wider goal of getting more women into senior positions at the the firm, according to The Guardian.
To further support working mothers, Goldman “has also launched a programme to ship mothers’ breast milk home to their children if they have to work overseas”, the newspaper says.
Goldman is a signatory of the UK’s Women in Finance Charter, introduced by the government after a 2015 review found that women only make up 14% of the executive committees in the financial services sector. The charter aims to increase the proportion of women in management roles to 30% across the UK’s 270-odd financial firms by 2023.
Last year Goldman admitted that it still has “significant work to do”, after the UK Gender Pay Gap report revealed that the average hourly pay rate of men at the bank was more than twice that of their female coworkers. The company said this was the result of “more men than women in senior positions in our organisation”.
Sally Boyle, head of Goldman’s HR, said the the new perk was a result of continuing conversations with staff.
She added: “Providing care to children, elderly parents or other dependents is a significant part of many employees’ lives. It’s important we recognise the challenges that can come from balancing these commitments with work and do everything we can to support our employees and their families when the need arises.”
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