Deloitte’s UK division said its female staff are paid 43.2 per cent less on average than male employees – one of the wider gender gaps reported so far, but also one that included the high-earning partners that similarly structured firms have been excluding from their data.
Britain is requiring companies with more than 250 employees to provide authorities with data on how they pay staff by April 4. In July, the accounting and consulting firm published a mean salary gap for its employees of just 18.2 per cent, excluding those equity partners.
Some professional-services firms had argued that as owners of the business, partners did not need to be included in the data. That prompted outrage from members of both main political parties, with Conservative Member of Parliament Nicky Morgan accusing law and accounting firms of exploiting a "loophole."
Deloitte “listened to the calls for firms such as ours to do more in how we report gender pay data,” David Sproul, the firm’s senior UK executive, said in a statement Wednesday. “We are firmly committed to transparency and achieving consistency in gender pay reporting standards.”
Law firms Linklaters and Pinsent Masons have reported that female employees earn 23 per cent and 22 per cent less on average, respectively, than their male colleagues, while EY reported a gap of 20 per cent. All of those firms excluded their high-earning partners. Barclays bank said its corporate and investment bank paid female staff an average of 48 per cent less than male employees.
“These calculations again serve as a stark reminder that we don’t have enough women in senior roles – this is not about unequal pay, but the shape of our firm,” said Emma Codd, managing partner for talent at Deloitte UK.
EY has also compiled revised figures, according to a report in the Financial Times on Wednesday. Including partners, women at EY are paid 38 per cent less on average than male staff, the report said.