UK Gender Pay Gap | Accenture

Accenture UK FY21 gender pay gap data

4 April 2022

Promoting a culture of equality and inclusion in the workplace is the right thing to do for so many reasons. Our research shows that equality compels creativity and inspires a sense of belonging. It helps us to bring unique perspectives and skills to the table and it is a powerful multiplier of innovation and growth. That is why we are committed to advocating for a culture of equality at Accenture where all our people are empowered to be their best.

As we publish our gender pay gap in the UK, and despite our commitment to equality and inclusion, it is clear that we still have work to do to ensure that our company looks more like the society in which we work and live.

We are laser focused on promoting gender equality across our business and have a fundamental commitment to pay equity. The gender pay gap is different than equal pay, which means paying the same to men and women doing comparable work which has been a legal requirement since the UK Equal Pay Act of 1970. We conduct an annual pay equity review and as of our last review on 5 November 2021, we have pound for pound, 100% pay equity for women compared to men in the UK.

Our goal is to employ equal numbers of women and men for those whose gender is binary and that 30% of managing directors will be women by 2025. Critical to achieving these goals are specific investments in hiring, retention, development, and inclusion for women. However, our current pyramid of talent means that we currently have more men in senior positions due to the historic under-representation of women within our sector and we have a greater participation of women in entry-level positions, due to our recruitment programmes. This risks bringing down the average rate of pay for women in the short term, but it ensures we have a balanced pipeline of talent for the future in an industry that otherwise has an underlying gender imbalance. We are committed to establishing mentoring and sponsorship programmes and providing leadership and growth opportunities for our women at all levels to ensure that we progress and retain our talented women. I am delighted that in FY21, 33% of our leadership level hires and 41% of our internal leadership level promotions were women. However, we have so much more to do.

There is a clear gender gap of technology skills across the UK, which can have an impact on the gender pay gap. Fundamentally, we need more women and girls to be equipped with the deep technology skills that we need for the future. We are committed to addressing this root cause and are championing programmes to improve talent and skills and drive lasting change. You can read more about these programmes below.

We approach inclusion, diversity and equality with the same discipline and rigour as any other business priority. We set goals, share them publicly and collect data to continuously improve and hold our leaders accountable. I firmly believe that transparency is important and will hold us to account as we continue our journey to gender equality in the workplace. When we create a place where you thrive, we all thrive.

Thank you,

Simon

Simon Eaves
Market Unit Lead – UKI

What is the gender pay gap?

The UK gender pay gap is a measure of financial equality that highlights the differences between the average earnings of men and women. Identifying this figure is an important step on the path to eliminating gender-based pay disparity, creating equality in the median and mean of men and women’s pay and setting our standards higher by committing to do better. The gender pay gap is different to equal pay, which means paying the same to men and women doing comparable work which has been a legal requirement since the UK Equal Pay Act of 1970. We conduct an annual pay equity review and as of our last review on 5 November 2021, we have pound for pound, 100% pay equity for women compared to men in the UK.

The full details of Accenture’s gender gap pay are published in the table below and are calculated on salary data from 5 April 2021. Accenture’s median gender pay gap in the United Kingdom is 16.1 per cent, versus a UK-wide median of 15.4 per cent across all companies.

What is Accenture doing about its gender pay gap?

Changing the gender balance across our workforce is a long-term process. While we have a higher percentage of men than women in senior management, we have focused on recruiting many more women at our entry levels and ensuring development and sponsorship throughout their career journeys. Recruiting and retaining women at junior levels to build a pipeline of leaders for the future holds a risk of bringing down the average rate of pay of women in the short term. We have well established mentoring and sponsorship programmes for our women and provide leadership and development opportunities across all levels so that women can progress through our organisation.

Over the last 18 months, we have had exceptional levels of recruitment across the UK in response to accelerated client demand. We have particularly focused on recruiting people with high technology and cloud engineering skills and are looking at developing our regional footprint across the UK. The need to close the gender technology skills gap has never been more acute.

We’re committed to creating opportunities for the next generation of female technologists and through our Girls in Tech initiative, we’re inspiring girls to consider exciting and rewarding careers in technology, and build the skills base from which we can recruit in the future. We’re also committed to upskilling our analyst consulting group (ACG) and technology analyst group (TAG), offering them tailored training opportunities that mean that they can grow and learn while working with us. We also continue to promote our Technology Quotient (TQ) training across our population to upskill our talent at all levels across our organisation, as well as the targeted Developing our Women programme, which offers tailored leadership training to women across all levels at Accenture.

UK Gender Pay Gap Numbers – FY21

Overall	AT 5 APRIL 2021	AT 5 APRIL 2020	AT 5 APRIL 2019
UK Median	15.4^%	14.9^%	17.3^%
Accenture Median	16.1^%	12.1^%	9.8^%
Accenture Mean	20.2^%	17.4^%	16.6^%

Percentage of Employees in Each Quartile

	AT 5 APRIL 2021		AT 5 APRIL 2020		AT 5 APRIL 2019
Quartile	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Q1	47^%	53^%	48^%	52^%	51^%	49^%
Q2	59^%	41^%	62^%	38^%	67^%	33^%
Q3	61^%	39^%	62^%	38^%	65^%	35^%
Q4	69^%	31^%	69^%	31^%	70^%	30^%

Bonus Gender Pay Gap

AT 5 APRIL 2021		AT 5 APRIL 2020		AT 5 APRIL 2019
Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
29.9^%	54^%	41.2^%	52.1^%	35.4^%	46.4^%

Percentage of Male and Female Bonus Recipients

AT 5 APRIL 2021		AT 5 APRIL 2020		AT 5 APRIL 2019
Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
59.4^%	57.6^%	57.1^%	61.2^%	57.7^%	61.2^%

Quartile Pay Band: The workforce is split into four equal parts based on lowest (Q1) to highest (Q4) paid.
Bonus Pay Gap: The difference between the bonus pay that eligible male and female employees receive.
Median: The midpoint of a distribution of values.
Mean: The average of a set of numbers.
Data excludes Avanade, one of Accenture's consolidated entities.

Gender pay gap and unequal pay – what’s the difference?

Unequal pay

Is paying men and women differently for doing comparable work. This has been unlawful in the UK since the introduction of the Equal Pay Act in 1970.

Gender pay gap

Is the difference between the median and mean of men's and women's pay more generally – across the UK, a sector or an entire company. We aim to close this within a generation.

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