AAT publishes new pay gap data for 2023

AAT has published its latest gender and ethnicity pay gap reports, ahead of Equal Pay Day on 22 November.

AAT has been publishing its gender pay gap data since 2017. It also began publishing its ethnicity pay gap data in 2021, despite there being no legal requirement to do so, as part of the organisation’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Both reports are based on hourly rates of pay at the snapshot date of 5 April 2023. Key findings from the reports include the following.

• The mean gender pay gap has increased from -0.2% in 2022 (when it was in favour of women) to 3.1% in 2023, and the median gender pay gap rose from 9.8% in 2022 to 17.3% in 2023. The mean pay gap is the difference between average hourly earnings, and the median pay gap is the difference between the midpoints in the ranges of hourly earnings (lining up all salaries in the sample from highest to lowest and picking the middle-most salary).
• The mean ethnicity pay gap increased slightly to 25.3% in 2023, up from 24% in 2022. The median ethnicity pay gap rose from 23.6% in 2022 to 25.6% in 2023.
• For bonuses, the mean gender bonus gap rose slightly to -9.7%, up from -11.9% in 2022, revealing there is still a bonus gap in favour of women. The mean ethnicity bonus gap was 14.3%, a decrease from 15.5% in 2022.The median bonus gap was 0% for both gender and ethnicity.
• As of 5 April 2023, 15% of AAT’s upper pay quartile (where the hourly rate is ordered from highest to lowest and split into four equal groups of 60, with the upper quartile representing staff at the highest end of this range) were from ethnic minority backgrounds. Over half (52%) of the upper pay quartile were female.

AAT is already taking steps to reduce these pay gaps and continues to maintain its focus on diversity and inclusion within the organisation. This includes:

• developing a specific action plan to support recruitment and progression of ethnic minority staff to more senior grades, following confidential listening groups led by the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI)
• implementing a new HR system which introduced name blind recruitment to AAT for the first time, and also enables greater data collection and analysis of candidates’ diversity profile throughout the recruitment process
• recommitting as signatories of the Women in Finance Charter and setting a new target to ensure the percentage of senior women in management does not drop below 45% by March 2027
• continuing to embed actions supporting diversity and inclusion into the business through training for all employees, participating in ENEI’s annual benchmarking process, and maintaining commitments to the Race at Work Charter.

Olivia Hill, AAT's People Director, said: "AAT remains strongly committed to diversity and inclusion within our organisation. Our priority is to enable all our staff to bring their whole self to work and achieve their full potential.

"Whilst it is disappointing that our mean gender and ethnicity pay gaps have widened since 2022, we are taking ongoing action to tackle this. This includes introducing name blind recruitment, as well as developing actions that will support with the recruitment and progression of ethnic minority staff. This effort has already been recognised by the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion, who awarded us a bronze TIDE award in 2023 for our work in this area.

"We will continue to gather feedback from across the business and embed this into our ongoing diversity and inclusion strategy, to ensure all employees are recognised for their contribution and rewarded fairly for their hard work."