These found an 11.2% median pay gap between male and female staff, an increase of 1.9% since 2021, and a 26.8% increase in the median bonus gap on last year’s negative gap. The SRA attributed this to changes in the proportion of males and females at the more senior levels, but highlighted they compare to a UK-wide average gap of 15.4% (according to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS)).
The median pay gap between Black, Asian and ethnic minority and White staff narrowed from last year’s 15% to 12.7%. The SRA noted that this is wider than the UK-wide average of 2.3% (according to ONS figures).
Paul Philip, SRA chief executive, said: ‘We believe that is it important that we, and others in the legal sector, publish our ethnicity pay gap in order to support and drive on-going change and progress in this area.
‘In terms of both gender and ethnicity, we continue to have good diversity in our overall workforce, but these latest figures confirm that we need to do more to reflect that diversity in more senior positions. We have a number of projects and initiatives in place to help us to do that, as set out in our action plans, including a target to double Black, Asian and minority ethnic presence in our senior management team over the next five years.’
