Gender Pay Gap
A note from Helen Mullings, our Chief People Officer
We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. This is our purpose which guides everything we do. We also know that diversity fuels ingenuity. It brings the exciting perspectives, knowledge, and skills that drive end-to-end innovation and achieve enduring results.
At PA, we seek to nurture an inclusive culture which embraces diversity and creates an environment where all our people feel valued, motivated, and can thrive.
This year, I’m pleased to see progress in reducing our Gender Pay Gap.
During the reporting period we have increased the representation of women at partner level and in our fee and non fee-based roles, which are more highly paid roles. We have taken positive action in numerous areas including:
- Improving our recruitment practices to better attract and retain female talent, as well as our career frameworks and performance evaluation approach, mitigating gender bias, and further opening up career opportunities and advancement for women in our organisation
- Championing gender equality from the inside, through our internal Women’s Network and the PA Women in Tech network, the latter of which raises awareness and supports the development and progression of women across PA and in the wider tech industry
- Using data to continuously monitor, inform, and assess our progress in moving towards gender equality by means of our diversity dashboard
- Introducing better support for working parents, those returning to work, and those planning parenthood, and challenging the notion that raising a family can have a disproportionately negative impact on women’s career prospects
- Putting in place a market benchmarked salary structure across all roles and making sure salary increase and bonus decisions are always taken on the basis of objective criteria such as performance score, rank, and time in role.
Although we continue to make progress, I recognise we still have more work to do to improve our Gender Pay Gap. I am committed towards continued change within our firm, doubling down on our work towards achieving gender equality in our graduate and early talent roles, and actively seeking to increase the pace of change towards gender parity at PA, including at the most senior levels.
Our 2022 Gender Pay Gap headlines
The main headline in our 2022 Gender Pay Gap report is positive news that our mean hourly and bonus pay gaps have both decreased compared to the same period last year. Our mean pay gap in the UK has decreased by 4.4% from 25.8% to 21.4% and our mean bonus gap has decreased by 6.4% from 59.7% to 53.3%.
We are pleased to see progress in the right direction, however our hourly and bonus pay gaps remain much larger than we would like. Overall, our headcount for women has increased in this year’s reporting period and the number of women in some of our most senior fee and non fee-based roles has risen, increasing the proportion of women to men in our top and upper middle pay quartiles.
We’re confident we have equal pay across PA. That's because we conduct equal pay audits annually, comparing the salaries of those who do the same jobs or work of equal value and analysing this for bias before correcting any discrepancies.
Overall gap between men and women
| Mean | Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly pay | 21.4% | 26.2% |
| Bonus pay | 53.3% | 42.7% |
Gender split across our hourly pay quartiles
| Upper quartile | Upper-middle quartile | |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 20% | 29% |
| Men | 80% | 71% |
| Lower-middle quartile | Lower quartile | |
| Women | 39% | 52% |
| Men | 61% | 48% |
Proportion of our people who got a bonus
| Men | Women |
|---|---|
| 99.1% | 99.3% |
How we’re addressing our Gender Pay Gap
We are continually assessing the root causes and drivers of our Gender Pay Gap and confronting these head on. Our aspiration is to proactively work towards eliminating it altogether. However, this requires we do more to create an environment where more women progress faster to our senior roles and are able to holistically thrive in their careers.
Across PA our teams are promoting gender equity, however our current firm-wide priorities align to six areas:
What is the Gender Pay Gap?
The Gender Pay Gap shows the difference in the average hourly pay between all men and women in the organisation, expressed relative to male earnings. The Gender Pay Gap is different from equal pay, which deals with pay differences between men and women 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 confirm we calculated our Gender Pay Gap in accordance with The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.
Moving in a positive direction
Since we first reported our Gender Pay Gap in 2018, we have steadily increased the proportion of women across our firm, including in senior roles, which has seen our hourly pay gap progressively fall.
Hourly pay gap 2018 vs 2022
| Mean | Median |
|---|---|
| ↓ 22.7% (-6.3%) | ↓ 14.66% (-4.5%) |
Hourly pay quartiles 2018 vs 2022
| Upper quartile | Upper-middle quartile | |
|---|---|---|
| Women | +8% (↑66.67%) | +5% (↑20.83%) |
| Men | -8% (↓09.09%) | -5% (↓06.58%) |
| Lower-middle quartile | Lower quartile | |
| Women | +5% (↑14.71%) | +1% (↑1.96%) |
| Men | -5% (↓07.58%) | -1% (↓02.04%) |
Our Gender Pay Gap history
2021
| Our hourly pay gap is: | Our bonus pay gap is: | Who received bonus: | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25.8% | 27.2% | 59.7% | 41.3% | 98% | 96.2% |
| Mean | Median | Mean | Median | Women | Men |
Hourly pay quartile gender split
| Upper quartile | Upper-middle quartile | |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 18% | 27% |
| Men | 82% | 73% |
| Lower-middle quartile | Lower quartile | |
| Women | 42% | 52% |
| Men | 58% | 48% |
2020
| Our hourly pay gap is: | Our bonus pay gap is: | Who received bonus: | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22.6% | 24.8% | 51.8% | 38.9% | 100% | 99.6% |
| Mean | Median | Mean | Median | Women | Men |
Hourly pay quartile gender split
| Upper quartile | Upper-middle quartile | |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 16% | 28% |
| Men | 84% | 72% |
| Lower-middle quartile | Lower quartile | |
| Women | 38% | 46% |
| Men | 62% | 54% |
2019
| Our hourly pay gap is: | Our bonus pay gap is: | Who received bonus: | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21.5% | 23.7% | 53.6% | 33.9% | 96.7% | 96.9% |
| Mean | Median | Mean | Median | Women | Men |
Hourly pay quartile gender split
| Upper quartile | Upper-middle quartile | |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 18% | 26% |
| Men | 82% | 74% |
| Lower-middle quartile | Lower quartile | |
| Women | 36% | 48% |
| Men | 64% | 52% |
2018
| Our hourly pay gap is: | Our bonus pay gap is: | Who received bonus: | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27.7% | 30.7% | 54.7% | 32.8% | 98.9% | 97.8% |
| Mean | Median | Mean | Median | Women | Men |
Hourly pay quartile gender split
| Upper quartile | Upper-middle quartile | |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 12% | 24% |
| Men | 88% | 76% |
| Lower-middle quartile | Lower quartile | |
| Women | 34% | 51% |
| Men | 66% | 49% |
