PwC gender pay gap shows its female staff paid slightly more
A MAJOR employer in Guernsey and Jersey has published data on its own gender pay gap for the first time – revealing interesting findings.
PwC in the Channel Islands has published the information as part of its commitment to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Analysis of its own employees’ pay across the Channel Islands, where it employs 371 people (57% male and 43% female), has shown that it has an overall gender pay gap at staff level of -2.8% in favour of women, which means women are paid slightly more than men overall.
The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between the average full time employee pay of all women in the firm versus the average FTE of all men in the firm, regardless of what they do in the organisation.
It is not about a measure of the difference in pay between men and women doing the same job.
When the firm’s partners are included with staff numbers, the gender pay gap rises to 27% in favour of men.
The firm presently has two female partners among the 11 in the Channel Islands.
Senior partner Simon Perry said the company had implemented a conscious strategy to create an inclusive workforce and greater flexibility for all staff – and that those efforts would continue.
‘During the last 12 months, we have adopted further measures to establish a more flexible workplace for employees, including the introduction of flexible working contracts, more support and incentives for working parents, including substantial enhancements to our maternity, paternity and carer policies, and a bigger focus on developing our key talent.
‘However, there is more work to do.’
He added: ‘It is important that we focus on leadership development as one of our highest priorities so that, over time, diversity at this level improves.
‘This change will not happen overnight, but we are committed to the firm having a more diverse leadership within the next five years.
‘The issue is not about whether men and women are paid equally for the same jobs. We are absolutely confident that our people are paid equally for equivalent work.
‘But the gender pay gap highlights where efforts have to be directed to encourage more diversity, especially among leadership roles within the organisation.’
By way of comparison, in October, the Office for National Statistics published the UK’s latest gender pay gap statistics.
It showed that the gap had increased slightly for full-time workers from 8.6% in favour of men in 2018 to 8.9% in 2019, although these figures are still far improved in comparison with the position 10 years ago.
The governments in Jersey and Guernsey have also shown their commitment to reducing the gender pay gap.
The States of Jersey recently published data that showed the difference in pay between men and women in its workforce stood at 18.3%.
In Guernsey, based on recently published gender equality data, PwC estimates the mean gender pay gap for the Guernsey public sector to be 12.5%.
‘We absolutely believe that gender equality is a business imperative and not a ‘‘nice to have”.
‘As one of the largest employers in the islands, we took the decision to voluntarily disclose our own gender pay gap and we hope and encourage other organisations to consider doing the same,’ said Mr Perry.
