Ethnicity and the ethnicity pay gap
The current picture
We only collect and report on ethnicity data in the US and UK, as data protection laws and requirements prevent us from doing this in other PA countries. Self-identification on our HR system is voluntary, with 76 percent of our US and UK employees (74 percent in the UK and 93 percent in the US) currently sharing ethnicity data to enhance demographic reporting and inform our initiatives. We began reporting on ethnicity data in 2021, having achieved meaningful data declaration rates of above 70 percent.
Building representation across all consulting ranks.
We are pleased to have seen continued improvements in the representation of minority ethnic individuals across all areas of our business. The most profound change has been in our junior and mid-career ranks, thanks in part to efforts to attract a more diverse cohort to our early career programmes and complemented by sustained support, development and mentoring programmes aimed at enabling these groups to be successful.
Successfully diversifying leadership
Our partner population has increased to 13.2 percent minority ethnic representation, up from 11 percent in 2024, as a result of both diversifying our external hiring and the promotion of internal talent. This includes 10 percent Asian (up from eight percent in 2024), one percent Black, and one percent US Hispanic representation. We are pleased to see role models at the top of our organisation, but remain mindful of the need to build a strong pipeline to enhance future minority ethnic leadership.
Addressing disparities
While we’ve made strides, Black representation remains low at three percent across our US and UK consulting workforce (up from two percent in 2024) – reflective of UK professional services yet below the broader US and UK working population. Encouragingly, we have seen rates of Black representation increase in our junior cohorts to five percent in 2025, up from three percent in 2021. Our focus will continue to be strengthening our recruitment and retention efforts for Black talent, alongside supporting and developing our junior talent as they progress through our organisation.
Minority ethnic representation in our non-consulting roles
We have seen an increase in those identifying as from a minority ethnic background in our non-consulting roles from 10.8 percent in 2021 to 13.1 percent in 2025. Within those figures, our Black representation rate has increased from 1.8 percent to 2.6 percent, increasing in line with our firmwide representation rate. Whilst these improvements are encouraging, we can do more to ensure roles in our non-consulting functions reflect the demographics of the wider population in the locations we operate in.
How we’re driving progress
Our vision is to promote racial and ethnic equality by fostering equitable opportunities across our organisation. Through initiatives in recruitment, learning and development, career progression, and mentoring, we are committed to a strategy of increasing Black and minority ethnic representation at both global and local levels in the coming years.
Supporting high-potential talent
Inclusive recruitment
Our skills-based assessment framework and technical tests implemented across PA ensure a consistent, inclusive, and bias-free process that evaluates talent based on capability and merit.
Onboarding for success
We’ve tailored our onboarding process to ensure we meet the needs of minority ethnic employees, creating a more supportive integration experience. We now provide the right information to our people at the relevant time, to support their integration into our firm, whilst also catering for the varied needs of our diverse workforce.
Mentoring interventions
Now in its second year, the Minority Ethnic Mentoring Programme provides visibility into career opportunities and connects junior and mid-level minority ethnic colleagues with senior sponsors, helping them to build deeper relationships and networks in the firm, develop their personal brand, seek out new work opportunities, and advance their careers.
Being more effective through targeted initiatives
Data-driven interventions
Our demographics dashboard introduced in 2023 continues to help us to monitor recruitment, attrition, project allocation, performance, and progression, allowing targeted interventions throughout the year where we identify acute need. In 2025, we delivered inclusion integration workshops with business area and regional leads, leveraging the power of data to pinpoint and identify local actions they could be taking to drive inclusion in their business areas.
Promoting cross-cultural awareness
Reverse mentoring
The PA Reverse Mentoring Programme (PARM) has now connected over 100 mentoring pairs since its relaunch in 2024. The programme is now aligned to our career framework and development goals while at the same time allowing senior leaders to gain insights from junior colleagues, broadening understanding of different lived experiences.
Conversations that matter
We’ve continued to deliver learning workshops aimed at shaping and shifting the way we think and behave. These ‘Big Conversations’ use the power of conversation and storytelling on meaningful topics such as race, ethnicity, and lived experiences to build understanding, empathy, and allyship, and offer our people the opportunity to practice inclusive behaviours in a safe space.
Community building
Our RISE (Racial Inclusion & Social Equity) Network celebrates Black, Asian, and minority ethnic cultures, fosters inclusion, and celebrates the benefits of ethnic diversity. Within the network are a number of thriving faith communities, which allow our people to connect with others with shared identities and provide a forum for our people to learn more about religion and belief. Over 2025, RISE and the faith communities have delivered over 40 events for people at PA.
Building cultural knowledge
Our RISE Network has built a Knowledge Bank, a dynamic library of lived experience, stories, written articles, and video content focused on background, culture, and heritage. The library is available to all people at PA to broaden their cross-cultural awareness on a range of topics and identities.
Say my name
The RISE: ‘Say My Name’ initiative introduced a company-wide name pronunciation tool, embedded across our internal systems and designed to help people across PA with name pronunciation for colleagues and clients. By taking a moment to learn and say a name correctly, we show respect, build trust, and create a more inclusive workplace. This initiative is especially impactful in organisations like ours, where we work with people from diverse backgrounds every day.
Helen Mullings, our Chief People Officer, explains our 2025 ethnicity pay gap
Now in the third year of reporting our ethnicity pay gap I am pleased to see another year of positive progress. Our mean pay gap has decreased from 12.3 percent to 10.9 percent and our median pay gap has remained flat, moving from 11.5 percent to 11.7 percent (well within the scope of normal annual fluctuation). Our bonus pay gaps have also reduced in the same year, from 33.7 percent to 23.9 percent (mean) and 17.8 percent to 13.9 percent (median).
Overall ethnicity pay gap
Overall ethnicity bonus gap
The ethnicity pay gap is the measure of the difference in average pay between colleagues that have declared themselves as being from a minority ethnic background versus being majority White. We report based on self-declaration rates. As of 6 April 2025, 72.3 percent of our UK population had declared their ethnicity.
When looking at individual ethnicities, we’ve seen another decrease in both the mean and median pay gap for those from Asian, Mixed, dual heritage or Other ethnic groups. We have seen a modest increase in the mean and median pay gap for those from Black backgrounds.
2025 hourly pay gap by ethnicity
2025 bonus gap by ethnicity
These are measured as average pay between those identifying as part of a particular ethnic group in comparison to majority White.
In 2025, 97.5 percent of those from minority ethnic backgrounds received a bonus, in line with majority White bonus allocation at 97.2 percent.
Percentage of people receiving a bonus broken down by ethnicity
Our continued work on improving the representation of individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds at all levels our workforce is driving the change in our pay gap. Representation in our junior and mid-level ranks has increased 1.8 percent and 1.7 percent respectively between 2024 and 2025, highlighting the impact of our inclusion efforts in early careers hiring and the progression of minority ethnic talent into mid-level roles (which are higher paid). Those from minority ethnic backgrounds now account for 17.9 percent of these rank populations combined, broadly in line with the UK’s population. This is complemented by an increase in the representation of minority ethnic individuals in our partner group (and highest paid population), driven by efforts to diversify our senior hiring. The positive impacts of these demographic changes are evident in the breakdown of our pay gap results by rank and role, highlighting that the driving focus for us must be to continue increasing representation and progression into and across our senior roles.
Breakdown of our 2025 mean ethnicity pay gap by rank and role
Our Black pay gap negative increase is an inadvertent short-term impact of us skewing representation towards more junior ranks, versus lower levels of representation in both mid-level and senior ranks. To correct for this, we need to double down on our efforts to ensure that Black employees progress through our organisation at a representative and equitable rate and that our hiring efforts at senior ranks also include a focus on Black senior hiring.
There remains signs of disparities between ethnic groups – highlighting the fact that delivering inclusion through a race lens within workplaces remains nuanced and complex. Our pay gap is significantly smaller for those from Asian backgrounds when compared to those from Black, mixed ethnic backgrounds or other ethnic groups. Looking at minority ethnic representation at all levels of seniority, people from Asian backgrounds make up 60 percent of our minority ethnic population. Furthermore, at more senior levels, this representation disparity is more pronounced at 73 percent, although this is a reduction of seven percent between 2024 and 2025, highlighting some progress in this area.
Over the past year, I am encouraged by the overall progress we have made in reducing our ethnicity pay gap. Our focus on developing internal talent and supporting colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds into more senior (and therefore higher-paid) roles has begun to yield positive results. We are also seeing the impact of our efforts to attract and hire a more ethnically diverse range of candidates.
However, while these strides are promising, there is still more work ahead. We remain committed to ensuring true equality of opportunity through bias-free, meritocratic systems. Only by continuing this important work can we ensure that all colleagues, regardless of background, have the chance to thrive and reach their full potential at PA.
What is the ethnicity pay gap?
The mean pay gap calculation
The median pay gap calculation
The ethnicity pay gap is the measure of the difference in average hourly pay between colleagues that have declared themselves as being from a minority ethnic background expressed relative to those declaring themselves as being majority White. The ethnicity pay gap is different from equal pay, which deals with pay differences between individuals from different ethnic backgrounds who do the same jobs, or work of equal value.
We already have equal pay across PA. We conduct equal pay audits annually, benchmarking the salaries of those who do the same jobs or work of equal value, and analysing results for bias before correcting any inconsistencies.
We use similar calculation methods to calculate our mean and median gender and ethnicity pay gaps.
