2023-24
What is gender pay gapreporting?
Mandatory gender pay gap reporting was introduced in 2017 with the aim of narrowing and eventually eliminating the pay differential between men and women
AtthistimeallUKcompanieswith250ormore employees are required to publish gender pay gap information. This is includes:
• Proportion of males and females in each pay quartile
• The mean and median hourly gender pay gap
• The mean and median bonus gender pay gap
What does gender pay gap reporting show?
The gender pay gap is an equality measure that shows the difference in average earnings between women and men
Pay gaps are different from equal pay. Equal payisprovidingthesamepayirrespectiveofa protected characteristic for those doing the same or similar work or work that is different but of equal value.
In the UK the current mean gender pay gap among all employees is 14.3% Office for National Statistics (2023). Available at ons.gov.uk(AccessedSeptember2024)
Compared to last year we have a 6.34% increase in the number of female employees and a 26.7% increase in the proportion of females in the top quartile. Median
Compared to last year we have reduced the mean gender pay gap from 24.94% to 21.69% (a 13% decrease) as well increasing the number of females receiving a bonus
The proportion of males and females receiving a bonus payment.
Understanding the gap
There are still a number of factors that contribute to our gender pay gap:
o Nearly a third of our workforce are part-time, only one is male, this contributes to the bonus pay gap.
o Like most law firms we have significantly fewer men than women occupying roles in lower quartiles which is the largest contributing factor to our pay gap – the lower quartile gender breakdown has remained the same as last year
o We have more women in non-solicitor roles and as these roles are paid less on average than solicitor roles, this contributes to the median pay gap.
o There is a higher percentage of males in our top quartile compared to other quartiles however, we have reduced this from 43% male last year to 34% male this year.
Progress this year
In the 12 months prior to publishing this reportwe have:
o We’ve reviewed our bonus structure and process and are implementing changes to provide more structure.
o Improved our Performance Development Review process to increase engagement and better understand how our people are performing.
o Implemented a carers policy and training to support those with caring responsibilities
o Held training covering a variety of diversity and inclusion topics
o Added unconscious bias as a topic in our line manager induction training
o Launched a new Applicant Tracking System with anonymised CV functionality
Action Planning for theFuture
We have several practices in place to supportreducing the gap including:
o Our Locate for Your Diary policy to allow people to work more flexibly.
o Carers policy to support those with caring responsibilities
o Our Core Hours policy to allow people to work around their personal commitments.
o The promotion of flexible working to support our staff and their wellbeing.
Ouraimistocreateaninclusiveculturewherepeoplewanttoworkandenjoy working and we remain dedicated to implementing changes to drive improvements, including:
o Reviewing and improving our recruitment adverts to highlight the flexible working opportunities at all levels
o Showcase examples where flexible working is successful at a range of levels across the firm
o Roll out of anonymised CVs across the firm
o Introducing mixed-sex interviewers throughout the selection process, where possible
o Using a broader range of advertising methods to reach the widest possible candidate pool
o Reviewing our family leave offering and actively promoting shared parental leave to our people.
o Implement further calibration and audit of bonus schemes.
o Creating a reward statement to give transparency about renumeration and bonus schemes.
o Holding diversity, unconscious bias and conscious inclusion training.
I confirm the gender pay gap data contained in this report is accurate.
Paula Bailey Partner
*https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/blog/future-of-law/the-gender-pay-gap-in-the-legal-sector-where-do-we-go-from-here
