Real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield has reduced its gender pay gap to 31.1%, from 35.8% since 2018.
The gender pay gap reporting regulations require organisations with 250 or more employees to publish the differences in mean and median hourly rates of pay for male and female full-time employees, the gap in mean and median bonus pay, the proportions of male and female employees awarded bonus pay, and the proportions of male and female staff in the lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands.
The reduction in the organisation’s gender pay gap is thought to be a result of initiatives leading to the increased progression of female employees. Last year, Cushman and Wakefield saw a 17% increase of women in partner and associate roles, and a 40% increase at international partner level.
Although not currently required by the regulations, the organisation also published its mean ethnicity pay gap for the first time, which currently stands at 25.4%; this data is based on 64% of UK employees that voluntarily declared their ethnicity.
Cushman and Wakefield, which has recently been awarded the National Equality Standard (NES) accreditation, has various policies in place as part of its diversity and inclusion approach. These include an enhanced paternity policy, adding data fields for sexual orientation, ethnicity and gender in its internal people platform, and enhanced mental health and wellbeing activities.
George Roberts, head of UK and Ireland at Cushman and Wakefield, said: “I am incredibly proud of the progress we have made in recent years, from the grassroots to the board table, to make our firm a more diverse and inclusive place to work. These [diversity and inclusion] milestones are a really positive driver of change in our organisation and act as a foundation for further improvement.
“Reducing the overall gender pay gap will take time, and it may not always be a linear path, but we are proud of the steps we have taken to help address the imbalance in the proportions of women in the lower pay quartile and the highest pay quartiles. This imbalance remains the primary cause of our gender pay gap and we will continue striving to reduce it further.”
Karen Clements, chair of Inspire, Cushman and Wakefield’s UK diversity and inclusion programme, said: “Ethnicity plays such an important role in diversity and by announcing our ethnicity pay gap we hope to help ignite meaningful action to redress this imbalance in our industry, as well as setting a benchmark for improvement ourselves.”
Charles Lebeter, head of HR, UK and Ireland at Cushman and Wakefield, added: “In going through NES accreditation we have challenged the way we do things, the resource and support we provide colleagues and the way our leaders behave, to ensure we make Cushman and Wakefield a culture in which everyone feels included and can thrive.
“We have come a long way and have achieved demonstrable change through this rigorous process that really benefits our culture and all [employees] who work at Cushman and Wakefield. Having an objective benchmark like NES to point towards is proof of that statement. I’m very proud of everyone who worked so hard to deliver this great achievement.”