PwC publishes gender pay gap information and pledges to encourage greater diversity at partner level

PwC in the Channel Islands has published its own gender pay gap information for the first time, part of its commitment to promote 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*.

But while welcoming this outcome, Senior Partner Simon Perry, was mindful of further strides the firm has to take, especially at partner level, where males significantly outnumber females in these senior leadership posts. He said:

He also highlighted that the firm presently has two female partners among the 11 in the Channel Islands and so, when partners are included with staff numbers, the gender pay gap rises to 27% in favour of men.

By way of comparison, in October, the Office for National Statistics published the UK’s latest gender pay gap statistics, which 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, though these figures are still far improved in comparison to the position ten years ago. The governments in Jersey and Guernsey have also shown their commitment to reducing the gender pay gap and the States of Jersey recently published data that showed the difference in pay between men and women in the States workforce stood at 18.3%. In Guernsey, based on recently published gender equality data there, PwC estimates the mean gender pay gap for the Guernsey public sector to be 12.5%.

PwC hosted events in both Guernsey and Jersey in March this year to highlight the benefits of having a diverse leadership team in business and how this links directly to higher economic performance. It was at this time that the firm pledged to voluntarily publish its own gender pay gap information on an annual basis.

It was also at these well-attended events that PwC launched its key report, the “Women in Work Channel Islands Index 2019”**, which ranked Jersey (20th) and Guernsey (14th) among OECD countries for female participation in employment, highlighting how improving female participation in work would boost both economies by millions of pounds, equating to a combined Channel Islands total of £407m or 6% of GDP, annually. Simon Perry added:

_{*The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between the average full time employee (FTE) 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.}

_{**Boosting diversity, prosperity and growth: Channel Islands Women in Work Index 2019: https://www.pwc.com/jg/en/publications/women-in-work-index.html}