The new easyJet chief executive, Johan Lundgren, has voluntarily taken a £34,000 pay cut to match the salary of his predecessor, Carolyn McCall.
The budget airline said Lundgren took the helm on 1 December on an annual salary of £740,000, but is now reducing it to the £706,000 McCall was on when she left last summer to take up the top job at ITV. Lungren"™s bonus and other elements of his remuneration package are identical to McCall"™s at the time.
Lundgren said: "At easyJet we are absolutely committed to giving equal pay and equal opportunity for women and men. I want that to apply to everybody at easyJet and 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."
The FTSE 100 company has a large gender pay gap "“ the difference between average male and female pay "“ of 51.7%. This is because the vast majority "“ 94% "“ of its pilots, who earn far more than cabin crew and other employees, are male.
Lundgren said: "I also want to affirm my own commitment to address the gender imbalance in our pilot community which drives our overall gender pay gap. I want us not just to hit our target that 20% of our new pilots should be female by 2020 but to go further than this in the future»…
