Gender Pay Gap
Statement from Shaun Savory, Human Resources Director
Gender Pay Gap
Along with all other employers with 250 or more employees, Birketts LLP is required to analyse and report on our gender pay gap, usually on an annual basis. As a reminder, the global pandemic meant that the requirement to report in 2020 was suspended, which is why you may note that these figures are missing.
The gender pay gap measures the difference between average earnings for men and women but is not a comparison of pay rates for men and women who carry out the same role.
While we were disappointed to see an increase in the gender pay gap this year, our enthusiasm and optimism to reduce this entirely remains strong, and we hope that, with ideas that are discussed below, we can still close the mean gender pay gap by 2030.
Work continues behind the scenes with our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) committee, developing a strategy and appropriate KPIs so that we can measure and review our impact and ensure that we are driving positive change. A People and Culture committee has now been formed which will further target key areas for improvement and ensure that changes are relevant and impactful, further supplemented by the appointment of a Head of ESG and Sustainability. We continue to see an increased use of Shared Parental Leave, resulting in men being able to spend more time supporting their new families, and hope to review our paternity and other family-friendly policies to further strengthen this. We also continue to strengthen our employee-led networks, which now include a working parents’ network. Our ‘Clearing the Pathway to Leadership’ programme continues to be a success with over 60 women now having engaged with it.
We continue to benefit from these measures and we are proud of the significant strides we have made – particularly in respect of our Partnership population, which is made up of over 40% women. We consider this to be a key indicator of our success with regards to gender diversity, but it is the case that once women are promoted to the Partnership, they no longer are included in the Gender Pay Gap figures which will likely have an impact.
As per the above, we view the data cautiously. Over 70% of our employees are female and, like many firms, we have a large secretarial cohort. This secretarial community accounts for just over 11% of our employee base and is almost entirely made up of women (bar one man in this group), which inevitably skews our figures. It should also be noted that a number of employees have been included that joined or left the firm during the snapshot period; as this group has not received a full month’s pay, this results in them, for the purposes of reporting, appearing to have a much lower hourly rate of pay than is ‘accurate’. Guidance on reporting advises that this information should remain in the reporting but should be noted in the narrative. Conversely, a number of employees (men and women) received welcome bonuses, which has the opposite effect, resulting in a higher hourly rate of pay than is ‘accurate’.
We are proud to offer a staff profit share scheme to all employees with the relevant length of service, allowing our employees to be rewarded for the firm’s overall success. The bonus is paid as a percentage of basic salary which impacts our bonus gap, as does the fact that 94% of our part time workers are female, so their bonus has been pro-rated.
Despite the figures not being as we anticipated, our commitment remains steadfast, and we are hopeful that this is an anomalous year, and that we will return to our positive progress in narrowing this gap and ensuring that every member of the Birketts team has the same opportunities to develop and achieve their full potential.
April 2024