EY gender pay gap shrinks as ethnicity pay gap widens
Ernst & Young has reported a 32.4 per cent gender pay gap among its staff, as at April 2020, and a nearly 37 per cent ethnicity pay gap.
EY UK chairman Hywel Ball said the gender pay gap at the Big Four firm had improved by 4.7 per cent in the last year, which was achieved by both recruiting and promoting women, particularly at senior levels.
In 2020 EY increased its female partner representation by 2 per cent, shifting the make-up of its partnership to 23 per cent female partners, and its female director representation by 3 per cent, to 37 per cent.
By contrast the firm’s ethnicity pay gap had widened by nearly 2 per cent, which Ball said was largely due to hiring more ethnic minority graduates this year.
As of April 2020 ethnic minorities made up 30 per cent of EY’s overall workforce, up 3 per cent from the previous year.
When it came to bonses the gender pay gap was more pronounced at 41.4 per cent. Bonus gap figures for ethnic minorities stood at 30.6 per cent.
Nearly 67 per cent of women at EY received a bonus compared to 62 per cent of men. Meanwhile just more than half (52.2%) of ethinic minority workers received a bonus compared with 70% of white employees.
“We have made headway and are proud to have seen a reduction in our whole firm and employee gender pay gaps reflecting progress against our diversity and inclusion strategy through a differential focus on gender,” said EY UK and Ireland managing partner for talent Justine Campbell.
“But we acknowledge that we need to do more to speed up the pace of change and increase diversity across all levels.”