Diversity Pay Report

Our commitment

In a year of rapid change, we have kept a strong focus on building an inclusive culture where there is equity of opportunity at all levels and everyone can thrive and fulfil their career potential.

This year we have continued to increase the diversity of our workforce. You can view our workforce breakdown and associated targets on this page. Our high disclosure rates enable us to take a robust data-driven approach to diversity and inclusion, targeting our actions to have the biggest impact and consistently measuring outcomes. Our demographics drive our pay gaps, so increasing our workforce diversity at senior, higher paid levels, is key to reducing these.

However, whilst very important, representation is only part of the picture. To foster a culture of belonging, we need to develop inclusive leaders at all levels who value diversity and think, act and lead inclusively. Supported by 14 people networks, we focus on how we can embed inclusion in the day-to-day. Highlights for this year include launching our award winning ‘Great Minds Don’t Think Alike’ neurodiversity training, our social mobility research into supporting new joiners from lower socio-economic backgrounds and research into the experiences of our LGBTQ+ colleagues.

Over the last year we have been recognised externally for our commitment to diversity and inclusion. This included being named a Times Top 50 Employer for Gender Equality for the 14th consecutive year and coming first in the Social Mobility Employer Index for a third time.

We first launched our Inclusion and Diversity five-point action plan in 2017 and these targeted actions have been key in getting us to where we are today. We are proud of the progress we have made over this period, but know we still have more to do. As the pace of change continues to accelerate, in FY25 we will be revisiting our diversity and inclusion strategy to build on our progress and ensure it is fit for an ever changing future.

Headlines for 2024

We are committed to transparency and accountability; that’s why every year we collect and publish our pay gap data, even where there is no regulatory or legal requirement to do so.

This year we are pleased to see a continued downward trend in our gender pay gaps. This reflects progress in the representation of women in higher paid (more senior) roles. Our partnership now comprises 27% women (FY23 25%) and our new UK Management Board is gender balanced at 54%.

Our ethnic minority representation has continued to increase due to recruitment activity, with 34% of our workforce now from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background (FY23 32%). We continue to make incremental progress on increasing ethnic minority representation at more senior levels, and 22% of our internal admissions to partner at 1 July 2024 are from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background (FY23 19%). However, recruitment has primarily been at more junior and lower paid levels, which is reflected in our pay gaps, for example the higher representation of Chinese talent at junior levels leads to a particularly notable pay gap for this community.

Increasing representation of all minority groups at senior levels is key to closing all our pay gaps. That’s why our inclusion and diversity plan has a strong focus on the development, progression and retention of underrepresented groups, giving everyone the opportunity to reach their potential.

High representation at junior levels also contributes to our sexual orientation and disability pay gaps which are prone to year on year movements due to the population size. We continue to focus on supporting and improving the experience of our LGBTQ+ and disabled staff, as well as increasing disclosure rates. This year, key actions have included the launch of an LGBTQ+ research project, our ongoing #EnablingEveryone campaign and the launch of our award-winning neurodiversity awareness training; Great Minds (Don’t Think Alike).

There is a notable increase across all of our median bonus gaps this year, while the mean bonus gap has stayed relatively static. The key driver of this is a one-off cost of living payment which was given to all employees earning under £50,000 in FY23. This payment impacted our more junior (lower paid) populations where there is higher representation of minority groups.

It is important to note that these gaps are different from equal pay and at PwC we are committed to ensuring our people are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across our business. We conduct equal pay audits as part of our annual reward review, and take action to address any gaps and to make sure all our policies and practices are fair.

What are we doing to close our pay gaps?

We are pleased to be making progress but we know we need to stay focused. Over the past year we have been working on this agenda more collaboratively with our staff who are helping to shape our work and contribute to our progress and this is clearly paying dividends and will continue in the future. Here you can find our five-point action plan and more information on the actions we are taking to drive transformative change across our firm to make sure all our people have a strong sense of belonging and trust in our firm.