What Causes Our Gender Pay Gap?
We’re in a strong position in terms of attracting, developing, and retaining women, and have a female-dominated workforce. We were recognised externally by Law.com International as the leading Top 50 law firm for UK female partners (equity and non-equity).
For the second year running, we were also recognised as one of the best firms in the UK for women to work for by the Great Place to Work Institute. This ranking is based on the views of women about their workplace experiences. The gender pay gap measures the difference between men and women's average pay. Equal pay relates to the Equality Act 2010, which requires employers to give men and women equal pay if they are employed to do like-for-like work.
The demographics of our colleague population are the main contributing factors for our gender pay gap and gender bonus gap:
- A higher proportion of women work in certain sectors of our workforce, for example in less senior, high-volume roles, including paralegal, document production and contact centre roles, impacting the overall mean pay gap
- A few high earners have an impact on our overall mean pay gap
- 92% of our part-time colleagues are women, and, across our Associate and Senior Associate population (where bonus percentages are higher due to the construct of the bonus scheme), 91% of our part-timers are women compared to 8% of men[2]. These factors impact our bonus gap because our bonuses are based on a percentage of an employee’s actual salary. This will be lower for part-time workers due to fewer hours worked in comparison to full-time employees
- Any senior-level appointments/high earners outside of the partner structure with significant bonuses impact the overall bonus gap due to the exclusion of partners from the statutory calculations.
[2] 1% other preferred description
What have we done since 2022 to positively impact the gender and ethnicity pay gaps for this year and future reporting years?
Since our last report in 2021, we’ve continued to develop and strengthen our Diversity and Inclusion strategy as part of our commitment to creating an inclusive workplace culture. Diversity and inclusion continue to be significant areas of focus, with inclusion also being an overarching goal in our new Responsible Business Strategy.
Highlights for this reporting year include:
Ranked 31st in Top 100 Employers for LGBT+ inclusion and Stonewall Workplace Equality Index Gold Award
Named as UK’s Best Workplaces for Women for the second year (10th)
Launched new Support and Workplace Adjustments guidance to support all our colleagues, including those with disabilities
Achieved Level 2 of the Government’s Disability Confident scheme
Adopted the Halo Code, a workplace pledge championing the right of colleagues to embrace all Afro-hairstyles
Launched IM Respect’s (our minority ethnic diversity group) Reciprocal mentoring scheme to support career progression for colleagues from minority ethnic backgrounds
Taken part in Business in the Community’s Cross-Organisational Mentoring Programme to support the career progression of minority ethnic colleagues.