Allen & Overy kicks off pay gap reporting season

Avatar photo

By Thomas Connelly on

Magic circle outfit reveals a partner inclusive gender result of 59.9%

Allen & Overy (A&O) has fired the starting pistol on a fresh round of pay gap reporting, revealing slight improvements in both its gender and ethnicity pay gaps.

Combining total annual pay for all UK-based partners and employees together, the magic circle player’s 2020 mean gender pay gap comes out at 59.9%. Its median is 46.4%. A&O’s 2019 gap stood at 61.5% and 43.8% respectively.

Taking its high-earning partners out of the equation, the mean gender gap in London drops to 16.1%.

A&O said its overall gender pay gap was more pronounced because of the higher proportion of men than women in its partnership, as well as the higher number of men in the most senior partner positions.

It also revealed black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) partners and employees are paid, on average, 22.4% less than their white colleagues — down from 23.1% last year.

The 2021 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

A&O also published data relating to disability for the first time, with the overall disability pay gap coming in at 20.2%. These figures are based on the 74% of staff in the UK who have recorded their disability information — with 3% identifying as having a disability.

Sasha Hardman, A&O’s global HR director, commented: “The overall picture from this report is one of progress and that our initiatives are having a real impact, with a broad trend of our pay gaps moving in the right direction. We believe that transparency about our actions, challenges and progress is central to achieving a balanced and diverse workforce. This is why we have included key points from our action plans across the different areas the report covers, which show how we are tackling the underlying reasons that pay gaps exist. We have also extended the report to cover disability.”

For the latest news, commercial awareness insight, careers advice and events:

Sign up to the Legal Cheek Newsletter

Related Stories

Allen & Overy sets 35% ethnic minority target for trainees

Magic circle firm also wants to retain more black NQs as part of wider diversity push

Jul 29 2020 1:49pm

Allen & Overy cuts NQ solicitor pay by 10%

COVID-19 response measure follows Slaughter and May salary decrease

Jun 22 2020 11:23am

Allen & Overy posts 93% autumn retention score

38 out of 41 trainees stay on

Jul 22 2020 10:56am