When change, disruption and uncertainty seem to be a constant, experience tells us that the inequalities that exist in our society become exacerbated. So it is against this backdrop that we have continued to focus on providing our people with the safety and support that comes from building an inclusive culture - one where everyone feels they can thrive regardless of their background.
Putting Inclusion First is critical given the increasing diversity of our workforce. For example, 47% of the nearly 2,000 students who joined us during the course of the year are from a minority ethnic background, 44% are female and 14% come from a lower socio-economic background.
While measurable improvement in representation matters, especially to our people, and supports the delivery of our 2025 gender and ethnicity targets, it’s the day-to-day experiences of those who identify with these communities that matters most. Understanding their experiences, identifying and unlocking any barriers to recruitment, career development and progression continue to inform our Diversity and Inclusion five-point plan.
Our plan is underpinned by data insights and analysis, which allows us to be bold and intentional in taking action on the issues that matter most to our people. This includes ensuring our internal systems and processes support the delivery of equitable outcomes.
When it comes to understanding our workforce in terms of the “protected characteristics” under the Equality Act, disclosure levels are high: 100% gender, 98% ethnic background, 92% disability, 89% sexual orientation and we also have 84% disclosure of socio-economic background (based on parental occupation).
We are proud of these levels of disclosure and the trust our people place in us to use this information for setting and delivering our targets, and analysing our pay gaps. A key part of our approach to driving equality is our commitment to transparent reporting of our pay gaps beyond regulatory requirements - full details can be found in our Diversity Pay Report.
Gender
Women account for 47% (46% FY22) of our workforce and we continue to make good progress in strengthening our pipeline of female talent resulting in higher levels of representation at director and partner level. We’re delighted that women made up 42% (40% FY22) of our partner admissions this year and we remain on track to deliver against our 2025 gender targets.
However, we are not complacent and recognise the changing needs of women in the workplace - particularly as our Women in Work Index shows an absolute decline in women’s employment outcomes in the UK. To further our support, we’ve increased the number of funded back up care sessions from 10 to 20 per year, extended our private medical cover to support women going through the menopause and expanded support for those planning or trying for a family; these improvements have been and continue to be extremely well received.
Supporting new ways of working following the pandemic, in particular empowered flexibility (a key part of the Deal we offer), and the ability to take summer working hours where possible, is appreciated by all but especially by women juggling a busy professional career with responsibilities outside of work.
Use the data explorer below to find out more about our progress against our gender targets and the Diversity Pay Report for details of all our gender pay/bonus gaps.
Numbers have been restated for April 2022 pay gap due to a change in methodology relating to the eligible population for inclusion and inaccuracies relating to additional payments which should have been included in the 2022 data.
Ethnicity
Ethnic minorities account for 32% (29% FY22) of our workforce. We have seen considerable growth in early careers with 37% (25% FY22) of our Associates coming from an ethnic minority background.
At partner level, 19% (14% FY22) of new admissions come from an ethnic minority background and our continued focus is on ensuring proportionality in promotions at every level across all our Lines of Service.
We continue to take specific action to ensure we meet our targets for better representation of Black talent, currently 5% of our total workforce (4% FY22). We believe everyone needs to take responsibility for understanding racial bias and the virtual reality racial awareness training (In My Shoes) we developed after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 is now a mandatory part of our onboarding process.
We continued to work with the 10,000 Black Interns programme, were an early signatory of the Black Talent Charter launched this year, and are proud sponsors of The Powerlist. Our Black Network was also delighted to welcome Sir Trevor McDonald to the PwC celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush in June.
Additionally, we’ve run seven LinkedIn Live events which featured the Black Tech Talent team in the second half of FY23. A total of 984 attendees watched live with a retention rate of 80%. In total there have been over 23,000 views of the events.
Use the data explorer below to find out more about our progress against our ethnicity targets and the Diversity Pay Report for details of all our ethnicity pay/bonus gaps (including our Asian, Black, Chinese and Mixed Ethnicity pay/bonus gaps).
Numbers have been restated for April 2022 pay gap due to a change in methodology relating to the eligible population for inclusion and inaccuracies relating to additional payments which should have been included in the 2022 data.
This disaggregated pay gap data is calculated as the difference between the average earnings received by employees from a specific ethnic background compared to White Ethnic Groups.
Socio-economic background (SEB)
Social mobility is a top priority for the firm and we're recognised as a top social mobility employer (placing 4th in the 2022 Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index). Throughout FY23, we’ve continued to focus on attracting and recruiting talented individuals from a lower socio-economic background as set out in our featured story on social mobility. Overall representation is currently 17.5% and we are pleased to have seen an increase at Manager, Senior Manager, Director and Partner level as we seek to strengthen our talent pipeline.
However, with the ongoing external challenges perpetuating and likely increasing inequality across society, we have to remain focused and do more - specifically to ensure the progression of people joining PwC as a result of our extensive outreach and recruitment activity. Our approach, which has been informed by detailed workforce analysis conducted with University College London, is designed to deliver measurable outcomes. And, as we did for gender and ethnicity, we have used predictive analytics to set our first ever socio-economic background targets for FY30. These are both challenging and aspirational, and by sharing these targets publicly we are holding ourselves accountable for making progress.
Use the data explorer below to find out more about our progress against our socio-economic targets and the Diversity Pay Report for details of all our socio-economic background pay/bonus gaps.
Numbers have been restated for 2022 headcount and 2022 pay gaps due to inaccuracies relating to the eligible population coming from a lower socio-economic background.
Disability
We’ve made good progress in implementing our enablement strategy this year. It was designed to improve our approach to workplace adjustments, and to develop and deliver training and other interventions to improve disability awareness, enablement and confidence among our people. This was brought to life with the launch of our #EnablingEveryone campaign.
We continue to listen to our people and work closely with our disability awareness network DAWN to inform our approach. In October 2022, we launched a neurodiversity pathway with AXA to alleviate the ever-increasing waiting times our people or their families were experiencing for an initial assessment under the NHS. In the nine months to 30 June 2023, 553 people (86% adult) benefited from this service - with 100% offered availability within five days and 90% receiving a positive diagnosis.
To continue to remove barriers and recognise the strengths of individuals, in particular our disabled and neurodivergent colleagues, we're focused on encouraging open conversations and learning from those with lived experience. We have invested in the development of a suite of learning assets, including a new digital module called Great Minds (Don’t Think Alike), which will launch this year. These assets aim to build understanding and to upskill, signposting to practical conversation guides and team-based workshops.
Use the data explorer below to find out more about disability and our workforce and the Diversity Pay Report for details of all our disability pay/bonus gaps.
Numbers have been restated for April 2022 pay gap due to a change in methodology relating to the eligible population for inclusion and inaccuracies relating to additional payments which should have been included in the 2022 data.
Sexual orientation
During the year, we continued to work closely with one of the largest of our 14 people networks, SHINE, which is made up of over 2,000 LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies. Thanks to SHINE, PwC participated in 11 Pride events across the UK this year (six in FY22). We collaborated with Tonic Housing - the UK’s first LGBTQ+ affirmative retirement housing organisation - with support from the PwC Foundation and together we walked with their residents at Pride in London.
The importance of role models inspired the publication of ‘PwC Inspirational 50’ marking 50 years of LGBTQ+ rights progress in the UK, 1972-2022, which was a terrific way to start the new financial year. And we also worked with SHINE to make pronoun pins available across our offices - a visible way to show support for our LGBTQ+ colleagues. We were also delighted to win the 2023 British LGBT+ Award for ‘Inclusive Employer of the Year’.
You can use the data explorer below to find out more about sexual orientation and our workforce and the Diversity Pay Report for details of all our sexual orientation pay/bonus gaps.
Numbers have been restated for April 2022 pay gap due to a change in methodology relating to the eligible population for inclusion and inaccuracies relating to additional payments which should have been included in the 2022 data.
* Please note, percentages shown may not total 100% due to rounding. Headcount data is correct as of 1 July 2023 and takes into account promotions effective as of that date. Pay data excluding partners is a snapshot as at 5 April 2023 (following the regulatory methodology) and data including partners is for the FY23 financial year. Further information about our gender, ethnicity, disability, socio-economic background and disability pay gap data is provided in our Diversity Pay Report. You can also find out more about our broader approach to pay.
Contact us
