Female employees at Citigroup receive 29 percent less than their male counterparts, said the Wall Street bank on Wednesday (Jan 16).

Citing an internal analysis, Citigroup said that the median pay for the bank’s women employees globally was just 71 percent of the median for men. Meanwhile, the median pay for minorities in the United States was 93 percent of the median for non-minorities. To close the existing pay gap, the third largest US bank is announcing targets for appointing more women globally and minorities in the United States to the senior roles in executive level.

By the end of 2021, Citigroup expects at least 40 percent roles at assistant vice-president level through to managing director level to be held by women, and 8 percent of such roles in the United States to be held by black employees. Currently, more than half of Citi employees globally consist of women and more than 45 percent of its US workforce are coming from minority groups, Reuters reports.

“We know we need a comprehensive approach to our diversity initiatives to make the progress we want to see,” Sara Wechter, head of human resources at Citi, wrote in a blog post.

Along with other Wall Street banks and financial companies, Citi bank has been under pressure to reveal how much less it pays women than men. A 15-year study by the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research found last year that American women earn an average of 39 per cent less than men but that this figure rises when taking account of time off for family or childcare.

Read also: Maybank’s Union Staff to Get Salary Rise by 10% in 2019