PwC working-class staff paid 12% less than peers, report finds

PwC has published its socio-economic background and disability pay gaps for the first time which showed that staff from working-class backgrounds were typically paid 12.1% less than other colleagues.

The analysis revealed that 14% of the firms’ 21,000 UK employees come from a lower socio-economic background.

In a bid to tackle the gap, PwC said it has continued to invest in its school and college leaver programme throughout the pandemic, with 124 people joining the programme in 2020, and a similar number joining through this route this year.

The group stated it has also made progress this year in strengthening its pipeline of female talent, particularly at manager and senior manager level, with women now making up 41% of internal partner admissions this year.

Kevin Ellis, chairman and senior partner of PwC, said: “The key to enacting real and meaningful change is starting with a strong platform of data. We’ve been focused on social mobility for a number of years and, by putting their trust in us through sharing their data, our people are giving us the information we need to take action in areas where it is needed.

“We have more work to do on our action plan, but publishing this data will help shine a light on areas for focus and widen the gate further for those wishing to join PwC.”

Laura Hinton, chief people officer at PwC, added: “We know that our data tells an important piece of our diversity story and the fact that a pay gap exists shows that we have more work to do.

“Tackling inequality for those with a disability within the workplace includes its own set of unique challenges, but we’re learning from our work in other areas of inclusion and using these lessons, alongside our data, to improve.”