A spotlight on ethnicity in the workplace
This is our fourth year voluntarily publishing our ethnicity pay gap, and this year we are going further and breaking down our ethnicity pay and bonus gaps to show our Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnic Background pay gaps. The pay gaps for the below breakdowns are driven by the population size and representation of each ethnic minority community across the firm, particularly in senior roles. We know we have more work to do, but we are pleased to report progress is being made, with a reduction across the board in all our ethnicity gaps as a result of our targeted focus on racial equality since 2017.
Our ethnicity pay gap data in detail
Breakdown of pay gap by ethnic group - staff and partners combined (whole firm)
Ethnic group |
FY20 median pay gap |
FY20 mean pay gap |
Total ethnicity pay gap |
3.5% |
31.6% |
Asian |
2.7% |
33.3% |
Black |
8.3% |
40.9% |
Mixed Ethnic Background |
2.2% |
26.1% |
This disaggregated pay gap data is calculated as the difference between the average earnings received by employees from a specific ethnic background compared to white staff.
We believe taking a transparent and data driven approach is key to driving action and change. Our existing strategy aims to increase the representation of ethnic minority talent in senior level roles in order to close the gaps.
Select the options below to compare against our ethnicity pay gap.
All data within the explorers reflects a 5 April snapshot and excludes partners:
Taking our plans a step further
All PwC UK partners are equity partners and, as part of our new 2025 targets, we are committing to doubling the number of Black partners over the next five years from six to twelve. Our strategy also aims to achieve greater diversity among new joiners to our business, so a new target includes driving representation in our recruitment by increasing the proportion of Black students hired from 3% to 6% by 2025.
The Black Lives Matter event of summer 2020 served as an important reminder of the racial inequalities that still exists across society. We want to accelerate our existing work but we also want to do more, which is why PwC UK Chairman, Kevin Ellis, announced a targeted anti-racist action plan in a firmwide Black Lives Matter live stream in June 2020.
New interventions include targeted wellbeing support for our Black and ethnic minority staff and their families who were most affected by the events, an increase in support of social enterprises founded and run by Black leaders, setting up a Staff Diversity Council to ensure all communities across the firm are equally represented and have a voice in shaping our inclusion strategy, plus racial awareness and mandatory unconscious bias awareness training for our people. This builds on our existing Diversity and Inclusion five point action plan. We relaunched our Speak Up campaign as a way of continuing to drive improvements in all that we do.
As we continue to take action to accelerate the pace of change on tackling racial inequality, existing partnerships like the one we have with UK BlackTech play an ever more important role. UK BlackTech aims to shift the dial on improving equality and equity in tech - a mission closely aligned with our own purpose of building trust in society and solving important problems.
Select the options below to compare against our ethnicity pay gap.
All data within the explorers reflects a 5 April snapshot and excludes partners:
Investing in our people
We’ve had an action plan focused on creating a more inclusive workplace for a number of years. In 2017, with help from specialist advisor Dr Doyin Atewologun, we undertook a qualitative review to understand the workplace experiences of our ethnic minority talent and to identify the interventions we need to make to ensure our culture promotes a sense of belonging for all minorities. We further built on that work in 2019 with a series of focus groups and surveys.
Some of the initiatives we set up following those discussions include a strong focus on work allocation and nurturing relationships more fairly, as well as launching and then scaling up our ColourBrave network. ColourBrave is our campaign to engage everyone in open conversations about race and ethnicity in the workplace. As part of this we have rolled out a network of over 300 ColourBrave advocates and champions across the firm. We encourage conversations about race in the workplace, but there is more work to do and we all have to play our part.
Select the options below to compare against our ethnicity pay gap.
All data within the explorers reflects a 5 April snapshot and excludes partners:
Embedding inclusion into everything we do
This year we have delivered inclusive leadership training to all our partners to support them in nurturing a culture where difference is embraced, and to equip them with the skills and knowledge to drive inclusion in their business.
Our people networks have worked hard to support our Inclusion initiatives and drive further cultural change, not just internally but also with our clients. Our Muslim and Christian networks have collectively raised over £23,000 for charity, and our Hindu network connected over 1,000 people through tech-enabled events for Diwali. Last year, we saw our MultiCultural Business Network expand across the country. Since then, their membership has increased by about 50% across our regional offices, ensuring greater representation across the firm.
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