Gender Pay Gap 2023
Our gender pay report shows the average hourly pay difference between men and women in our practice. This has the potential to be misleading as gender pay gap reporting does not differentiate between roles or location and shows an overall percentage and averages across the entire practice. The numbers are not indicative of role vs role (for example, the report does not show Male Architect versus Female Architect).
We are required to report the mean and the median gender pay gap.
The mean is the traditional average which adds all the hourly rates and divides by the number of individuals. This compares the difference between the male and female means as a percentage. This can be significantly influenced by outliers e.g. higher or lower paid individuals.
We are also required to report the ‘median’. This is generated by calculating the middle hourly rate based on the number of individuals in that group (the midpoint). The report compares the difference between the male and female medians as a percentage. We focus on the median as it less likely to be influenced by outliers less prone to small fluctuations in high or low earners and is therefore considered a more representative figure. The median is the figure that is commonly used when comparing salaries and different companies’ gender pay gaps.
We are also required to report the ‘bonus difference’ between male and female colleagues who received a bonus from May 2022 to April 2023.
Since starting to report our gender pay gap we have seen an overall decrease in both mean and median figures.
This is our 7th year of reporting and since 2020 we have seen a slight increase in our mean gender pay gap since the last report and a plateau in our median.
We believe this is due to the way that we have planned the restructuring of our teams and recruitment efforts post-pandemic.
When individuals have left the practice we have aimed to replace at the same level, or preferably the tier below. We have done this to help rebalance our practice structure. This has impacted our mean, causing it to initially decrease in 2021 and slight increase in 2022 and 2023. This trajectory is now showing signs of improving, which we hope will be borne out in the data in future years.
Stride Treglown’s gender
(2023 demographic)
Stride Treglown’s Architects
(2023 demographic)
ARB UK registered Architect
(2024 demographic)
(Feb 2024 – https://arb.org.uk/about-arb/equality-diversity/data/)
Understanding the Gap
We have identified a lack of female representation in senior roles causing much of our gender pay gap (see Quartile data) in our business and having a larger male versus female population, 60% male / 40% female.
Since 2017, we are pleased to have increased the percentage of women in the highest pay quartile D from 13% to 23.2%. We know there is still work to be done, and our efforts are focused on inclusive leadership, succession, and opportunities being advertised internally (as well as externally).
In the lower quartiles, A and B, we have seen the male / female representation equalise since 2017 and move closer to 50% / 50% gender split. This change is clearly a positive step towards more equal representation of both male and female colleagues across the practice.
An impact on our gender pay gap in the last couple of years has been our recruitment and workforce planning strategy of changing the structure of some of our teams when individuals leave.
The number of leavers in the practice is relatively low and stable, and we do retain employees across our offices for many years, with the average length of service at 9 years. Therefore, when an individual leaves the practice we take the opportunity to bring in new employees, and that has consisted recently of more junior roles. This joiner group is more gender balanced than that at senior levels, which has an impact of pausing our median pay gap and causing a slight increase in our mean gender pay gap.
Since our 2022 gender pay report:
- We have continued to increase the number of female employees in senior leadership positions and are working towards closing the % difference between male and female employees in the upper C and D quartiles.
- We have continued to work on our Reward Strategy looking at concepts such as compensation, benefits, wellbeing, careers, and recognition, as a step towards increased transparency for our staff
- We have rolled out the next stages of our Leading Self and Others Programme to improve our inclusive approach to leadership across the practice.
- Our gender balanced Promotion and Salary panel has continued to meet and review salaries across the organisation. The panel’s role is to ensure that employees are considered for promotions and annual salary increases equally and without bias.
Hourly Pay Gap
(April 2023)
Our mean and median hour pay gap has continued to decrease over the 7 years of UK gender pay gap reporting. However, this year we have seen a second increase in the mean and the median has plateaued.
The overall difference between men’s and women’s hourly pay based on a snapshot on the 5th April 2023 is 17.0% (mean) and 19.8% (median). We believe this is for the reasons outlined above.
We actively carry out annual comparisons on pay for equal or similar work across our organisation including role on role comparisons, and we are actively working to remove the smaller gap that exists in this context.
Gender Pay Gap – Hourly Mean & Median
Pay Quartiles based on hourly pay – Percentage of Male and Female Employees in the different pay bands (A to D).
(April 2023)
A (Lowest)
B
C
D (Highest)
Bonus Pay Gap
(April 2022 – 2023)
Our bonus gap has increased this year.
Before going into the detail of this, it is worth noting that bonuses make up a relatively small part of our distribution to employees. Our previous report reflected the uncertainty of market conditions and a lower inflationary environment. In that period we had used bonuses to help reward colleagues during the tail end of the covid pandemic, which meant that bonuses constituted a larger proportion of our discretionary distribution than salary increases. As we have moved into 2022-23, however, the market conditions have changed. We were able to give salary increases across the company, which means that bonuses are proportionally a smaller proportion of the discretionary distribution.
When we analyse bonuses in more detail, a number of factors have affected the bonus gender pay gap:
- In 2022, we have paid the majority of our bonuses as net bonuses, which means most employees receive the same net amount in their pocket. Although the same net amount is received by all employees, the gross amount payable as tax is higher for the higher rate taxpayers (40%) than for an employee in the basic tax bracket (20%). As we have to calculate bonuses based on gross, not net pay, and due to a greater number of men in the upper Quartiles at Stride Treglown, this has had an impact on our bonus pay gap.
- To be eligible to receive a bonus, individuals need to have worked in the practice during the previous business year, as the profits relate to that period of time. As we have restructured our practice through recruitment, the numbers eligible for a bonus have dropped in this reporting period and this has impacted our bonus figures.
- The main mechanism for profit sharing for our equity board directors is via bonuses, rather than salary or draw down. A proportion of profit is distributed equally as bonuses among equity directors, the majority of whom are male.
Eligibility for Bonus
(April 2022 – April 2023)
Bonus eligibility represents a snapshot from 2021 to 2022. All employees are eligible for a bonus if they have been here during the previous financial year. These numbers represent a period where certain members of staff were new to the company.
In this period 13.4% of male employees and 29.8% of female were ineligible for bonuses. These individuals were new to the organisation during the reporting period so didn’t receive profit related bonus payments from the previous business year. These individuals will become eligible in due course if they stay with the company and this will have an impact on our figures.
The directors of the practice, both male and female, are paid at the same level. Their individual salary is six times that of the lowest paid employee at full time equivalent (FTE).
In accordance with The Equality Act (2010) (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 I confirm the gender pay gap data contained in this report for Stride Treglown Limited is accurate and has been produced in accordance with the guidance on managing gender pay developed by the Arbitration and Conciliation Service (ACAS). Pierre Wassenaar, Chair for Stride Treglown Ltd.
