If the latest stats from the IPA Agency Census are to be taken at face value, then it would appear to suggest that progress on the ethnicity pay gap has stalled but the gender pay gap is closing. This isn’t mere conjecture either as the IPA’s own director of diversity and inclusion, Leila Siddiqi, admits that “there is a stalling of progress this year in terms of the recruitment, progression and remuneration of ethnically diverse talent.”
Why then, are such great strides being made to close the gender pay gap while the ethnicity pay gap remains poor, with a 21.6% favouring white employees? Let’s start by looking at the cold hard numbers.
Gender Representation
The census reveals a balanced gender representation within UK agencies when it comes to employment, with female employees constituting 54.7% of the workforce, up from 2022. In contrast, male employees account for 44.6%. This shift indicates a growing trend towards gender balance in the industry. Indeed, there was even a marginal increase in the percentage of women in C-suite roles, now at 37.9%.
Rebecca Hendin
However, the gender pay gap remains a significant issue. While there has been a decrease in the pay gap, with a 15.2% difference in favour of males, down from 17.4% in 2022, it still highlights ongoing inequality. This gap is more even more pronounced in creative and other non-media agencies (20.5%) compared to media agencies (8.6%).
Ethnicity Representation
The census points to a slight decline in ethnic diversity, with 23.3% of employees coming from non-white backgrounds, a marginal decrease from the previous year. This decline is also reflected at the executive level, with non-white employees representing only 11.0% of those in Executive Management and C-suite roles.
Luciano Koenig Dupont
The ethnicity pay gap has unfortunately widened in the last 12 months, with the 21.6% differential favouring white employees representing an increase from 2021’s 21.1%. This suggests that, despite the growing diversity at junior and entry levels, there is still a significant disparity at higher levels of seniority.
What Can Be Done?
In a word – more. Yes, the gender gap is moving in the right direction, but more attention needs to be given to upping the diversity stakes without lapsing into diversity washing (diverse hiring for the sake of diverse hiring). Studies have shown time and time again that a more diverse workforce creates a more innovative and engaged workforce, which should particularly appeal to agencies.
The problem, however, is that so many employers still see no benefit to diversity and that’s genuinely worrying. Perhaps the only way to make them see is to push forward with interventional ideas like insisting on diverse shortlists when working with recruitment agencies or using the Apprenticeship Levy for upskilling. Or perhaps that would just prove the point of those lambasting diversity hiring as tokenistic? There’s, of course, no easy answer here.
Leila Siddiqi, director of diversity at the IPA
It can’t be denied, however, that these figures dramatically underscore the need for continued efforts in addressing pay gaps and ensuring diversity at all levels and serve as a reminder of the ongoing work required to achieve true equality and inclusivity in the industry.
As Siddiqi herself says: “By shining a light on areas that need our attention, we can make speedier progress. The richer and more diverse the composition of our industry, the more relevant and interesting we will be for our clients, audiences, and modern-day British society.”
