As a purpose-led and values-driven organisation our goal is to be bold and intentional in taking action on those issues that matter most to our people, affect our communities and benefit our clients. Taking action on inclusion is fundamental to our Purpose. We know that our data tells an important piece of our diversity story and, combined with our Diversity and Inclusion five point action plan, we aim to create a workplace characterised by a strong sense of belonging and trust. By sharing our data and reporting on our progress we are holding ourselves accountable for those outcomes which we believe are essential to our business today and for the future.
We first published our gender pay gap data in 2014 and our ethnicity pay gap data in 2017 and full disclosure for this year can be found in our Diversity Pay Report.
Our reporting exceeds the regulatory requirements which relate to gender only. For example, we extend the pay gap analysis to ethnicity and we include our partners who are currently excluded under the regulations. In FY20 we provided greater transparency by breaking down our ethnicity pay gap data to show our Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnic Background pay and bonus gaps for the first time and this year we are drilling down further to show our Chinese pay and bonus gaps.
Our approach to diversity at PwC is inclusive of all and we hold ourselves to account for the impact of the actions we are taking by using the confidentially held personal data that our people voluntarily share with us in our statistical analysis. The 100% and 97% disclosure levels for gender and ethnicity respectively allow robust analysis, including predictive analytics for target setting and pay gap analysis.
While the disclosure level is slightly lower for socio-economic background and disability, we are publishing these pay and bonus gaps for the first time this year as they represent significant priorities for us where we are seeking measurable improvement based on the actions we are taking. We also plan to work closely with our Staff Diversity Council to improve disclosure rates for sexual orientation across the firm so that we have more robust and reliable data which allows us to publish those gaps in the future too.
The pay gaps published below show differences in the median earnings between groups (e.g. white v minority ethnic groups) and will persist until there is equal representation at every level of our firm, which our action plan aims to achieve long term.
Gender
We have made good progress this year in strengthening our pipeline of female talent, particularly at manager and senior manager level, and were delighted that women made up 41% of internal partner admissions this year. All of this means we are on track to achieve our gender targets across all grades by July 2025. You can 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.
Socio-economic background (SEB)
Social mobility continues to be a top priority for us and throughout the past year we have continued to focus on attracting and recruiting talented individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds and then ensuring they have the appropriate support to develop and progress their careers with us. We are delighted to have been ranked the number one UK employer for social mobility in the Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index for the past two years, and to have won the Organisation of the Year Award in the UK Social Mobility Awards in 2020, but know we have more work to do.
To ensure we move further forward, we are holding ourselves to account and this year also publishing our socio-economic background (SEB) pay and bonus gaps. Our pay gap analysis is based on parental occupation information shared with us by 80% of our people, of whom 14% come from a lower socio-economic background. Closing these pay and bonus gaps and increasing the representation of staff from a lower socio-economic background at all levels of our organisation, especially the more senior levels, will continue to be a key priority for us.
Further details of our SEB pay/bonus gaps can be found in our Diversity Pay Report.
Disability
We are creating a workplace where people who have a disability, long-term or neurodiverse condition feel empowered and are enabled to fulfill their potential. We are doing this by improving our enablement services for making adjustments in recruitment and working practices, by upskilling all our people and building greater disability awareness and confidence.
As signatories of the Business Disability Forum’s Accessible Technology Charter we are committed to providing assistive technology and improving disability awareness through ensuring the accessibility of all technologies used by our colleagues and clients.
We are global signatories of the Valuable 500 and proud to have achieved Level 2 of the Government's Disability Confident Scheme for our progress.
89% of our people have told us whether they do (4%) or do not (85%) have a disability, long-term/recurring or neuro-diverse condition but we know this 4% is under-reported and we aim to address this in the year ahead. We are working with the Business Disability Forum and our Disability Awareness Network to gain deeper insights into the experience of colleagues with disabilities and long-term conditions and to understand attitudes on disability inclusion. This will inform our actions to improve disability inclusion and data disclosure and shape our disability awareness training which will improve colleagues' understanding of disability and adjustments to build their disability confidence.
Ethnicity
We have made good progress this year, especially at partner level with 13% of new internal partner admissions coming from an ethnic minority background, and we are on track to achieve our ethnicity targets across all grades by July 2025. This reflects the focused actions we have taken in areas of recruitment, development and progression as reflected in our Diversity and Inclusion five point action plan aided by the additional interventions launched by PwC UK Chairman and Senior Partner, Kevin Ellis, in June 2020.
You can use the data explorers below to find out more about our progress against our ethnicity targets, and the Diversity Pay Report to review the details of our ethnicity pay gaps.
Our overall ethnicity pay gaps compare average earnings of our White Ethnic Group population to our Minority Ethnic Group population. Our disaggregated ethnicity pay gaps are calculated as the difference between the average earnings received by employees from a specific ethnic background compared to White Ethnic Group staff.
We set out below the pay and bonus gaps for our Black, Asian, Chinese and Mixed Ethnic background staff.
Headcount data is correct as of 1 July 2021, and takes into account promotions effective as of that date. Pay data excluding partners is a snapshot as at 5 April 2021 (following regulatory methodology) and data including partners is for the FY21 financial year. Further information about our gender, ethnicity and SEB pay data is provided in our Diversity Pay Report. You can also find out more about our broader approach to pay.
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