The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) has reported a mean ethnicity pay gap of 25.3% in 2023, up from 24% in 2022.
Its median ethnicity pay gap rose to 25.6% in 2023 from 23.6% in 2022. The report, which is based on hourly rates of pay on 5 April 2023, also found the mean ethnicity bonus gap was 14.3%, down from 15.5% in 2022.
The organisation also reported its gender pay gap data. For 2023, its mean gender pay gap increased to 3.1% in 2023 from -0.2% in favour of women in 2022. Meanwhile, its median gender pay gap rose to 17.3% in 2023 from 9.8% in 2022.
AAT’s mean gender bonus gap rose slightly to -9.7%, up from -11.9% in 2022. Its median gender and ethnicity bonus gaps both stood at 0 for 2023.
AAT is taking a number of steps to reduce these pay gaps, including: developing a specific action plan to support the recruitment and progression of ethnic minority staff, implementing a new HR system, which introduced name-blind recruitment, recommitting as signatories of the Women in Finance Charter and setting a new target to ensure the percentage of women in senior management roles does not fall below 45% by March 2027, and continuing to embed actions supporting diversity and inclusion into the business.
Olivia Hill, people director at AAT, 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. While 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, which 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.”