JPMorgan Wins Gender Pay Gap Dispute Against London Analyst

JPMorgan Chase & Co. won a London gender pay gap dispute lawsuit against one of its female analysts after a tribunal judge dismissed all claims against the investment bank.

Saidya Najeeb, who joined JPMorgan in March 2022, alleged that she was paid less than a male colleague doing the same job and faced retaliation when she raised the issue with management.

In a one page judgment made public on Wednesday, the judge said that Najeeb’s claims of equal pay, direct sex discrimination and victimization were not “well-founded.” No more details of the judge’s reasoning were published.

The bank’s lawyers previously denied the allegations and said that the difference in pay was due to industry background, skills and experience. A spokesperson for JPMorgan didn’t immediately comment. Contact details for Najeeb, who represented herself at a November hearing, couldn’t be found.

Gender pay disputes in London tribunals have come into sharp focus ever since 2022 when a BNP Paribas SA broker won £2 million ($2.7 million) pounds after judges ruled she’d been a victim of “spiteful and vindictive” bosses. They chastised the French lender for an “opaque pay system” and ordered a first of its kind equal pay audit.

The average woman working in the U.K. financial sector earned about a fifth less than their male colleagues in 2024, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of government data. At high paying investment banks the picture is particularly dire.

Male analysts were typically promoted a year faster than women at JPMorgan, Najeeb argued during the hearing last year, pointing to examples she had gleaned from conversations with colleagues. A manager at the bank who gave evidence countered that Najeeb cherry picked the examples she used to support her case.

Top photo: Employees at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. offices in Bournemouth, UK. Bloomberg.