‘Major increase’ in brands measuring socio-economic pay gap

An increasing number of organisations are embracing the need to analyse socio-economic pay gap data to prove they are serious about breaking down barriers to progression.

Some 36 of the 140 entrants to the Social Mobility Foundation’s 2025 Employer Index measure their socio-economic pay gap, up from 26 last year. The index assesses and ranks UK employers on the actions they are taking to open up to talent from all social backgrounds.

A total of 60 entrants (43%) either measure their class pay gaps already or are planning to analyse them next year, which the foundation describes as a “major increase” versus previous years. According to the data, 74% of entrants are collecting socio-economic background data for their workforce.

When it comes to creating opportunities, most (82%) entrants offering apprenticeships pay the Real Living Wage or higher, while three quarters (75%) targeted careers outreach to schools based on socio-economic background.

The growth in brands measuring their socio-economic pay gap is partly a recognition of the “change and challenge” surrounding the skills needed for the future, says Social Mobility Foundation CEO Sarah Atkinson.

Business getting ahead of the legislation and being ready to respond to their workforce, and respond to the political pressure, is what’s important.

Sarah Atkinson, Social Mobility Foundation

“There’s a recognition of that expectation in business, particularly in the context of the challenge to diversity, equity and inclusion agendas,” she states.

“There’s real recognition that social mobility is the space in which it’s incredibly important to keep pushing that agenda. There’s public expectation around that. There’s consumer expectation around that. There’s government expectation around that.”

She points to the example set by “pioneer organisations” that started measuring their pay gaps three or four years ago, such as PwC and Teach First, the hope being to spark a “real step change” next year.

“It feels like where we’re at is exciting, but it’s not enough. It’s not the end. The pay gaps are still too big. The data is still showing us too many problems. But it’s a huge shift in recognising that this needs to be a focus,” Atkinson argues.

While legal and professional services firms are “streets ahead” according to the foundation’s analysis, marketing organisations still lag behind when it comes to entries to the index .

Progress stalls on closing marketing’s socio-economic pay gap

“The strength of diversity in marketing – I hear it, but I don’t see it,” she adds.

Marketing Week’s own figures reveal progress has stalled. The 2025 Career & Salary Survey uncovered a socio-economic pay gap for full-time workers of 15.3%, flat compared to last year’s figure at 15.9%. Almost three quarters (74%) of the more than 3,500 respondents identified as middle-class, up on the 70.1% figure reported last year. The data revealed a socio-economic pay gap at every level of seniority.

Brands failing to dig into their socio-economic pay gap data could find themselves falling out of step with public opinion. Whereas a couple of years ago organisations were unsure about collecting this kind of information and lacked confidence around asking the right questions, focus is shifting both politically and economically, says Atkinson.

“Organisations are more comfortable. People are more comfortable having the conversation that says not everybody is able to benefit from opportunity in the same way. We recognise that’s true. What are we going to do about it? The political focus has helped with that,” she notes.

At the recent Labour Party Conference, the Social Mobility Foundation hosted a panel with MPs discussing why banning unpaid internships, increasing the number of Level 2 to Level 4 apprenticeships in deprived areas and making large employers publish socio-economic data could help break down barriers.

From Atkinson’s understanding, the government isn’t currently planning to make socio-economic pay gap reporting mandatory for large organisations, despite evidence from the index suggesting major employers are increasingly collecting this data.

“We’ve got the evidence here that says it’s time for a change, but it is difficult. It’s difficult to get change. It’s difficult to get anything done that needs government time at the moment, so we’ll push,” she says.

“We’ll keep pushing, but in the meantime, business getting ahead of the legislation and being ready to respond to their workforce, and respond to the political pressure, is what’s important.”

Prioritising prosperity

Looking specifically at the results of the 2025 index, law firm Browne Jacobson claimed first place for the second year in a row, followed by water company Severn Trent (second) and legal firm Linklaters (third).

Legal and professional services firms dominate the top 10, with Clarion Solicitors (fourth), Addleshaw Goddard and KPMG in joint fifth place, Osborne Clarke LLP (seventh), National Grid and Norton Rose Fulbright LLP (joint eighth) and DLA Piper International (10th). Other notable brands in the top 75 include Aviva (41st), Santander (68th) and the BBC (75th).

Eight employers from the creative industries (media, broadcasting, public relations, communications, marketing, publishing, advertising) entered the index this year, alongside two FMCG firms. Specifically, four PR, communications and marketing companies entered in total, with Citypress (46th) the only one to place in the top 75.

Atkinson describes the PR firm as a “phenomenal example” of a brand which entered the index last year and has improved performance, rising eight places in 2025.

People are more comfortable having the conversation that says not everybody is able to benefit from opportunity in the same way.

Sarah Atkinson, Social Mobility Foundation

Employers entering the index receive tailored feedback to make meaningful improvements to access, progression and internal culture for staff from lower socio-economic backgrounds. In the case of Citypress, the team acted on the feedback and made changes.

“More importantly, they’ve seen the benefits in their organisation and people in Citypress are really proud of that. Proud to work for an employer that’s doing that,” says Atkinson.

“We give that feedback, we give those detailed recommendations. It’s a good way to understand, because we’ve got now so much good practice to share from all sorts of different organisations. Whether you are PwC, you’re Severn Trent, you’re Browne Jacobson. These are different kinds of organisations, different profiles, but there’s great examples of things they’ve done and how they have seen the success.”

Sitting in 17th place on the ranking is the Co-op, which last summer became the first UK retailer to publish its socio-economic pay gap. Calculating the pay gap between colleagues from professional and lower socio-economic backgrounds, the analysis found the Co-op has a mean socio-economic pay gap of 5.2% and a median pay gap of 0.2%.

In February, Zurich became the first UK insurer to publish its socio-economic pay gap data.

Calculating the hourly rates of pay for all employees by their socio-economic groups and lining those hourly rates of pay up together, the median represents the rate of pay in the middle of each wage grouping. According to this data point, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds within Zurich earn marginally more than people from professional backgrounds, creating a negative -4.2 pay gap.

‘Actions speak louder than words’: Insurer Zurich on prioritising socio-economic diversity

However, the insurer prefers the mean as a way to overcome the sway produced by very high or very low salaries. Zurich’s mean salary uncovered a 10.2% pay gap, meaning people from ‘professional’ backgrounds earn on average more than their peers from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Chief HR officer Steve Collinson told Marketing Week at the time the data proved the case for better representation. According to Collinson, getting to the point where 73% of Zurich’s 5,000 strong UK workforce were willing to share their socio-economic background hinged on building a “foundation of trust”, a process which started a decade prior.

With concrete examples to point to from the likes of the Co-op and Zurich, Atkinson notes a real expectation among employees that brands should take inclusion and progression seriously, especially in a challenging political climate where many communities feel “left out of success and prosperity”. For businesses, the benefits are tangible.

“As well as the business benefits of better access to talent, better opportunity to grow people, the diversity in thinking, there’s a real responsibility to think about how this fits into the way business can contribute and the opportunity for everyone to benefit from prosperity,” Atkinson adds.

“It really is a win win and the organisations in the index will say they have put work into this, they put focus into this, but they have benefited hugely.”

Marketing Week’s Opening Up campaign is pushing for the democratisation of marketing careers. Read all the articles from the series so far here.