Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports 2024
In this report we set out the pay gap data for both Gender and Ethnicity, using a snapshot date of 5 April 2024. Pay gap analysis looks at the difference in average pay between different colleague groups and helps to give insight into areas of imbalance within our organisation.
While publishing our Gender Pay Gap is mandatory, we are voluntarily publishing our Ethnicity Pay Gap for the third year as this aligns to our organisational commitments to increase the representation of women and colleagues from ethnic minority groups and our belief that transparency helps drive progress.
Inclusion is an integral part of our purpose as a business – helping people to find their financial freedom. We believe that saving and investing for a better future should be accessible to all, no matter what their background, circumstances or knowledge and we seek to make this possible.
We embrace and celebrate the value of diversity across colleagues and clients. We have targets in place through our Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to increase the representation of women, ethnic minority and Black colleagues by 2027.
Within this report we share positive progress:
- Our mean Gender Pay Gap has narrowed (down from 9.3% to 7.9%); and
- Our mean Gender Bonus Gap has continued its downward trend (down from 28.6% to 27.0%).
However, our median Gender Pay Gap has slightly widened, and our median Gender Bonus Gap has reverted to 2022 levels. Median pay is less impacted by small outlier populations and therefore an important focus for us as an organisation. We go into more detail on this later in this report.
Similarly, our mean Ethnicity Pay Gap has continued to close (down from 12.2% to 9.2%), with our mean Ethnicity Bonus Gap closing sharply (down from 53.2% to 28.7%), but our overall median Ethnicity Pay and Bonus Gaps have also widened.
While we are proud of the progress we have made, we recognise there is still more work to do. We have clear actions in place to help us address the areas where we need to do more and are committed to making progress as a strategic priority.
Our Inclusion and Diversity key priorities are to:
- Deliver on our agreed representation targets
- Broaden our workforce data and insight to enable a data-driven approach
- Make inclusion a core expectation of life at Hargreaves Lansdown
Having just joined Hargreaves Lansdown, I look forward to leading on this important priority for the company as the Executive Leadership Team member responsible for our People Strategy.
I can confirm that the data reported on these pages is correct.
DENISE SEFTON, Chief People Officer
What’s the difference between equal pay and pay gaps?
Equal Pay
Equal pay is the right for men and women to be paid the same for the same, or equivalent, work or work of equal value. Hargreaves Lansdown has a clear, fair, and bias-free approach to pay and we operate on an equal pay basis across the business. We have checks in place as part of our annual performance and pay review process to ensure colleagues are paid equitably based on their role, skills and experience.
Gender Pay Gap
The Gender Pay Gap measures the difference between men and women's earnings across the business by expressing the percentage difference between men and women's average hourly pay.
For example, if the average man’s pay was £20 per hour and average woman’s pay was £17 per hour, women would earn 85% of the amount men earn, giving a mean Gender Pay Gap of 15%.
The median is the figure that falls in the middle of a range when the pay of all relevant employees are lined up from lowest to highest. The median gap is calculated by taking the difference between the employee in the middle of the range of male pay and the middle employee in the range of female pay.
HL’s Gender Pay Gap
All data provided is as of the 5 April of the years listed within the table.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean Gender Pay Gap | 13.7% | 12.9% | 17.6% | 4.9% | 7.8% | 9.3% | 7.9% |
| Median Gender Pay Gap | 20.4% | 19.9% | 19.1% | 15.7% | 13.7% | 19.1% | 19.5% |
| Mean Gender Bonus Gap | 70.6% | 73.0% | 62.8% | 64.0% | 51.7% | 28.6% | 27.0% |
| Median Gender Bonus Gap | 56.1% | 49.5% | 45.1% | 43.7% | 32.6% | 17.8% | 33.9% |
| Proportion of Employees in receipt of Bonus - Women | 51.6% | 68.6% | 72.2% | 66.1% | 65.8% | 84% | 63.8% |
| Proportion of Employees in receipt of Bonus - Men | 59.6% | 71.9% | 76.8% | 72.5% | 73.1% | 83.9% | 67.2% |
HL’s gender proportion (%) by pay quartile
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Quartile - Men | 56% | 57% | 55% | 53% | 51% | 54% | 52% |
| Lower Quartile - Women | 44% | 43% | 45% | 47% | 49% | 46% | 48% |
| Lower Middle Quartile - Men | 60% | 60% | 63% | 61% | 58% | 52% | 55% |
| Lower Middle Quartile - Women | 40% | 40% | 37% | 39% | 42% | 48% | 45% |
| Upper Middle Quartile - Men | 72% | 70% | 66% | 61% | 58% | 61% | 61% |
| Upper Middle Quartile - Women | 28% | 30% | 34% | 39% | 42% | 39% | 39% |
| Upper Quartile - Men | 79% | 81% | 81% | 76% | 71% | 70% | 69% |
| Upper Quartile - Women | 21% | 19% | 19% | 24% | 29% | 30% | 31% |
What the data is telling us
Our mean Gender Pay Gap has decreased this year, moving from 9.3% in 2023 to 7.9% in 2024, while our median Gender Pay Gap has increased moving from 19.1% to 19.5%.
Similarly, our mean Bonus Gap has reduced year-on-year from 28.6% to 27.0%, while our median Bonus Gap has increased from 17.8% in 2023 to 33.9% in 2024.
Median pay is less impacted by small outlier populations and therefore an important focus for us as an organisation. This measure is more frequently used by outside agencies to assess pay equity in an organisation.
Factors impacting our Gender Pay Gap:
- Despite increasing female representation at senior role levels, the increase in the median Gender Pay Gap between 2023 and 2024 is primarily due to there continuing to be a greater proportion of men in roles commanding higher salaries, as they are in larger roles or roles commanding a greater market premium.
Factors impacting our Gender Bonus Gap:
- Included in the 2022/23 data, taken as a snapshot on 5 April 2023, were two “Breathing Space” payments which impacted the median Bonus Gap, as it evened out the proportion of women vs men receiving a bonus. No further payments were included in the current data and the gap has therefore reverted to a similar level to the prior year.
- We have incentive schemes within our Advisory and Fund Management business areas which typically pay a higher bonus than those on the standard HL scheme. The participants within these areas are predominately male.
HL’s Ethnicity Pay Gap
This is the third year we have produced an Ethnicity Pay Gap report and the second in which we have chosen to disaggregate the data in order to get richer insight into the barriers faced by different ethnic groups. While there are no regulatory requirements to report this data, we choose to do so as we recognise the importance of data in providing key insights to help us meet our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) targets.
All data provided is as of the 5 April of the years listed within the table.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean Ethnicity Pay Gap | 19.6% | 12.2% | 9.2% |
| Median Ethnicity Pay Gap | 21.2% | 20.3% | 23.8% |
| Mean Ethnicity Bonus Gap | 67.6% | 57.4% | 28.7% |
| Median Ethnicity Bonus Gap | 43.2% | 41% | 42% |
5 April 2024: Ethnicity Pay Gaps in comparison to White colleagues’ pay
| Pay Gap | Bonus Gap | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | Median | Mean | Median | |
| Black, Asian and Mixed/Other Ethnicities (combined) | 9.2% | 23.8% | 28.7% | 42.0% |
| Black | 28.1% | 29.1% | 75.0% | 85.5% |
| Asian | 0.8% | 21.8% | 60.5% | 61.7% |
| *Mixed/Other Ethnicities | 9.6% | 14.6% | 60.7% | 68.6% |
| Ethnicity Not Disclosed | -36.2% | 22.2% | 62.8% | 78.9% |
Proportion of colleagues receiving a bonus
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | 62.7% | 86.2% | 57.5% |
| White Other (incl. Irish) | 87.0% | ||
| Asian | 50.0% | 82.2% | 82.2% |
| Black | 35.0% | 69.1% | 45.6% |
| *Mixed/Other Ethnicities | 45.3% | 80.0% | 71.1% |
| Not Disclosed | 36.8% | 75.4% | 53.7% |
| Black, Asian and Mixed/Other Ethnicities (combined) | 45.3% | 78.5% | 50.0% |
*Due to the total number of colleagues who have disclosed as ‘Mixed’ or ‘Other’ being too low to report on each category separately, we have chosen to combine the colleagues rather than to exclude the data completely.
HL’s Ethnicity proportion by pay quartile
| White | Ethnic Minority | Not Disclosed | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Lower Quartile | 62.8% | 58.9% | 16.1% | 19.0% | 21.1% | 22.0% |
| Lower Middle Quartile | 77.5% | 71.8% | 11.7% | 15.2% | 10.8% | 13.0% |
| Upper Middle Quartile | 83.5% | 80.6% | 8.3% | 9.5% | 8.2% | 9.9% |
| Upper Quartile | 78.8% | 77.9% | 7.6% | 9.2% | 13.6% | 13.0% |
What the data is telling us
The overall mean Ethnicity Pay Gap for 2024 is 9.2%, which is a decrease from 12.2% last year. The median is 23.8%, which is an increase from 20.3% in 2023. The overall mean Ethnicity Bonus Gap is 28.7%, with a median of 42.0%.
While the mean pay gap between White and Asian colleagues is low, 0.8% in favour of White colleagues, the median pay gap is 21.8% in favour of White colleagues. This shows that the mean is influenced by a few high-paid Asian colleagues.
In reviewing the individual categories for Black, Asian and Mixed/Other colleagues, the most notable mean gaps are of Black colleagues. This is driven by low representation of Black colleagues at higher paying and senior roles. Black colleagues also have lower mean and median bonus gaps compared to other ethnicity categories.
Within HL, 17.4% of colleagues have not disclosed their ethnicity in our HR system. We have chosen to report the non-disclosed pay gaps separately, in line with government guidance and to reinforce our commitment to reducing the non-disclosed figures.
Factors impacting our Ethnicity Pay Gap:
- While we have increased ethnic minority representation across all role levels, including senior role levels, representation is concentrated towards more junior roles, and there is less representation in roles commanding a greater market premium.
- Low representation of Black colleagues at higher role levels shows that Black colleagues have the largest mean and median pay gaps.
Factors impacting our Ethnicity Bonus Gap:
- We have incentive schemes within our Advisory and Fund Management business areas which typically pay a higher bonus than those on the standard HL scheme. The participants within these areas are predominately White.
- Similar to the Gender Bonus Gap, the overall percentage of colleagues receiving a bonus has reduced due to there being no “Breathing Space” payments made in this year. In addition to this, there have been large drops in Black and Asian colleagues receiving a bonus. This is due to the change in eligibility to a discretionary bonus for Role Levels 5 and 6 (our entry levels, for example, HL’s Helpdesk and Operations Associates and Consultants) effective 1 March 2023. It’s at these role levels that we see a higher representation of these ethnic minorities.
What have we done to close the pay gaps in 2024?
Our first Gender Pay Gap Action Plan was put in place in 2018 and focused on initiatives that sought to reduce bias from pay processes, remove barriers to progression for women and attract more female talent. We started reporting our Ethnicity Pay Gaps from our 2022 snapshot data, which has supported our focused efforts to improve both female and ethnic minority representation in our senior and pipeline populations.
Our Inclusion and Diversity Strategy
Our current Inclusion and Diversity strategy has three priority areas of focus:
- Deliver on our agreed representation targets.
- Broaden our workforce data and insight to enable a data-driven approach.
- Make inclusion a core expectation of life at HL.
A review of progress against our female representation targets has found that:
- We are making good progress towards our 2027 senior female representation target.
- We need to increase our focus on the population of direct reports to our Executive Leadership Team, where the proportion of women has decreased over time.
A review of progress against our ethnicity representation targets has found that:
- We have made positive progress in our efforts to increase the ethnic diversity of our workforce and are on track to achieve our 2026 representation targets.
- While we have seen positive movement in Black representation over time, the pace of change is slow.
A review of our progress and participation in external benchmarking and best practice:
- In 2020, we launched our Strive Internship Programme in partnership with Bristol City Council, University of the West of England (UWE) and the Bristol Mayor’s office, which creates paid internship opportunities for students from ethnic minority groups in organisations across the West of England. Through this programme we have created over 90 internship placements across 25 organisations, and in 2022, the programme won the Institute of Employers (ISE) Outstanding Partnership with an Employer award. Alongside our own programme, we also provide opportunities as part of the 10,000 Black Interns programme.
- We are a member of the 30% Club and the 50:50 Equality Project, and signatories of the Race at Work Charter.
- We’ve just completed the Ascent Programme, a year-long development programme aimed at progressing women at role level 3+ (i.e. middle managers, subject matter experts) into more senior positions, with 20% of the delegates already in more senior roles before the programme had concluded.
Impact of our Colleague Networks
Our colleague networks continue to support our aspirations to increase female and ethnic minority representation. Throughout 2024, our Gender Diversity Network and Cultural Diversity Network have been instrumental in fostering inclusivity and driving positive change within HL.
Collaborative efforts include initiatives such as partnering with Women’s Work Lab for a returnship program, facilitating Ramadan buddying opportunities and providing mentorship for programs such as HL’s Strive internship and the 10,000 Black Interns programme.
Noteworthy events included our inaugural Hanukkah celebration and live Lunar New Year lion dance emphasising HL's commitment to embracing diverse cultural traditions.
Furthermore, they have made strides in promoting awareness and support for health-related issues such as endometriosis and menopause, with the appointment of Endometriosis and Menopause Champions who received specialised training.
What are we doing to close the Pay Gaps in 2025?
Our focus for 2025 to support narrowing the pay gaps will be on:
- Functional focus – the data has shown that we have different challenges in different parts and levels of our business and we need a targeted and tailored approach to drive change. We will be focusing on clarifying our aspirations by functional area, which support our organisation-wide targets and ensuring we have business-owned plans in place to drive long-term change.
- Recruitment – we will make changes to our recruitment processes to drive accountability for diversity amongst hiring managers deeper in our organisations to ensure a commitment to, where possible, attracting diverse candidate slates.
- Progression – we will be launching development programmes supporting female and ethnic minority talent to progress into new and more senior roles.