A Cambridge law firm is closing its gender pay gap quicker than other firms across the country.
Irwin Mitchell has published its latest pay gap report, which shows that for the third consecutive year the law firm has narrowed its gender pay gap, which is significantly lower than the previous industry average.
Gender pay gap reporting was introduced by the government in 2017 and all companies with over 250 employees are required to report on their gender pay gap annually.
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Susana Berlevy, Irwin Mitchell chief people officer and diversity board member, said: “Although our results are again positive, and show an overall improvement from last year, we recognise that there’s still work to do and remain committed to improvement.
“Part of this includes the hard work taking place to ensure our people policies are developed to support the improvement in gender balance across the organisation.
“We have an ambition to be a leading responsible business, and we demonstrate that by championing fairness, diversity, equality and inclusion.”
Blind CV screening
The report shows that the firm, which has 15 offices across the 海角视频 including one in Cambridge, saw a decrease in its mean gender pay gap (the difference in average hourly pay for women compared to men) to 10.3 per cent in 2019.
This is lower than the 12.8 per cent reported in 2018, when the firm had the sixth lowest pay gap across reporting law firms.
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Last year’s average gap in the top 50 海角视频 law firms was 19.5 per cent.
Irwin Mitchell has in recent years rolled out blind CV screening for certain roles, unconscious bias training, and mental health and wellbeing courses.
There are also several networking and support groups aimed at improving the business for people such as new parents, the LGBT+ community, and women working in law.
The firm’s gender bonus gap also narrowed by 5.5 per cent between the number of men and women receiving a bonus.
Irwin Mitchell’s mean gender bonus gap is 25.7 per cent. This is lower than the 31.9 per cent in 2018.
The bonus gap calculation differs from the pay gap calculation, as it is based on the number of colleagues who receive a bonus and the differing amounts paid.
This means that the bonus gap is impacted by influencing factors including the fact that 91 per cent of the firm’s part-time colleagues are women and the fact bonuses are pro-rated against a full time salary.
Ethnicity pay gap
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In terms of gender diversity, 70 per cent of Irwin Mitchell colleagues are female, while women make up 65 per cent of regional managing partners and 42 per cent of partners.
In 2020, 63 per cent of promotions to associate and senior associate at Irwin Mitchell were also women.
In 2019, 77 per cent of colleagues promoted to partner level were women.
Irwin Mitchell has the highest percentage of female solicitors (65 per cent) out of any other 海角视频 law firm and is in the top ten for percentage of female partners.
This year, the law firm has also published ethnicity pay gap figures.
The firm’s ethnicity pay gap stands at -2.3 per cent favourable to ethnic groups other than white British.
This means there is little difference between the average hourly pay of white British colleagues and those from different ethnic groups, although ethnic minorities get paid slightly more.
The ethnicity pay data is based on the 78 per cent who have reported their ethnicity, allowing the firm to report on a data set of over 2,100 people.