News

Gender Pay Gap 2024

Our gender pay gap for 2023/2024 has decreased from 36.6% to 33.2%.

The pay gap at more senior levels, in the upper quartile, shows that the average pay for women remains significantly lower than that of men but the gap has narrowed compared to the last year. This is still the largest gap at 23.5% and  reflects the findings of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) who reported for 2024 “The gender pay gap is larger among high earners than among lower-paid employees”.

Similarly to the last reported period (2022/2023) an approximately equal percentage of men and women received a bonus in 2023/2024. The gap in average bonuses between men and women remains significant.  The greater number of men in senior roles, which tend to attract higher bonuses and other longer-term incentives, is a key factor which continues to affect this measure. We are considering what steps we can take to address this.

As an employee-owned business, all co-owners, including senior leadership, are included in our reported figures. Up to and including Associate Director level, the gender pay gap is balanced and the gender bonus gap is in favour of women. However, the gap for both pay and bonus increases at Director level and above. A major factor in the extent of our pay and bonus gap continues to be the lower number of women in senior roles.

We continue to work towards our aim to increase the number of women at Director level to 50% and Senior Director level to 30%. Currently women make up 33% of the leadership team. In April 2024, 62% of co-owners below the Director level were women, and as of today, that figure has risen to 64%. We are confident in the strength of our talent pipeline.

We are committed to ensuring that all co-owners have equitable opportunities for growth. Progression is based on merit, performance, contribution, and the business’s needs, and we remain dedicated to fostering authentic personal development for our co-owners.

Narrowing our gender pay gap continues to be a strategic priority. We are focused on diversifying leadership and implementing our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) action plan.

We continue to seek feedback from co-owners on our EDI progress, and in narrowing our pay and bonus gap, and regularly review our action plan to ensure continuous improvement.

5 March 2025