Gender Pay Gap
Gender Pay Gap 2023
Ashtons Legal, along with all other UK employers with over 250 employees, is required to analyse and report on its gender pay gap.
The gender pay gap is the difference between men’s and women’s average hourly wage within a business, regardless of their role and seniority. This is not the same as equal pay, which is about men and women being paid the same for equal work. We are required to report to the government the following annually on the following:
- mean and median gender pay gap
- mean and median bonus pay gap
- proportion of men and women receiving a bonus
- distribution of men and women across the business divided into four quartiles from lowest to highest pay.
The information is based on data on the snapshot date of 5 April 2023 and bonuses paid in the 12 months to this date.
You can view Ashtons Gender Pay Gap Report 2023 by clicking here: Ashtons Legal Gender Pay Gap Report 2023.
On 5 April 2023, Ashtons Legal had 386 relevant employees.
Review of our data
This year our median gender pay gap decreased by 6.7% and the mean decreased by 0.4%.
We are pleased to see a decrease in both our median and mean gender pay gaps this year.
We have again undertaken a more detailed analysis of our data, looking at the mean and median gender pay gaps for some of our lawyers and partners. This analysis shows a much smaller pay gap at each level, with a negative number showing a gap in favour of women.
Our Bonus Pay Gap graph looks very different to the gender pay gap graph, with the median gender bonus gap from 2018 to 2023 consistently being 0%. This shows that men and women have equal access to a bonus.
We are also making progress in closing our bonus pay gap, which was 18% in favour of men in 2022 and 16.2% in 2023. We introduced a firmwide bonus scheme in April 2022, however the snapshot date of 5 April 2023 and therefore calculation of the gender pay gap was before bonuses were paid out for the 2022/2023 financial year when all eligible employees received a 5% bonus.
We have a higher proportion of women than men at the Firm and this is shown across each of the quartile ranges.
Diversity and Inclusion forms a key part of our strategy, and our Diversity and Inclusion Committee has the full support and buy-in from all areas of our business. We already have a number of initiatives and working practices that support our diversity and inclusion agenda, including:
- Family-friendly policies – Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave pay.
- Paid Time Off – empowering employees to take the time off they feel they need rather than imposing limits.
- Working Policy – empowering our employees to get the work life blend that works for them, not specifying how many days employees need to work from the office.
- Leadership Programmes – Applications are accepted from all employees for each of our three leadership programmes.
- Career conversation and support.
- Coaching and mentoring.
Over the last 12 months, we also welcomed four individuals on our legal apprenticeships, alongside many other apprenticeships across the firm. We have launched a fertility wellness session which was attended by all genders to share knowledge and gain a deeper understanding across our business. We are also rolling out Imposter Thinking Workshops, available to all our employees in April 2024. Imposter Thinking is a way of thinking which can affect all genders, however it is known to predominantly impact women which can impact their likelihood to apply for promotions and progress within a firm. We are continually looking at ways in which we can break down any barriers that may be preventing women from progressing.
Our partnership is continuing to grow, with the proportion of women in our partnership now being 43%. We also welcome another woman onto our Management Board in April 2024.
We are always open to suggestions from our employees on how we can improve and will be working with our Diversity and Inclusion Committee to put an action plan together to help us achieve our aims.