News

Duncan Lewis Solicitors has published its annual gender pay-gap reporting for 2023. This is our seventh annual report, and our results show a further decrease in our gender pay gap, which remains below the industry average. As of April 2023, women accounted for 74% of the workforce and represented exactly 74% of the company’s top two pay quartiles respectively. The gender pay-gap legislation introduced in April 2017 requires all employers of 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay-gap for employees.

The Gender Pay Gap is a measure across all jobs in the company, not of the difference in pay between men and women for doing the same job. It is important to note that the reporting of both median and mean gender pay statistics reveals the following limitations: a lack of comparison in relation to comparable job roles/title(s), furthermore, the calculations fail to take into account intangible aspects which affect salary such as qualifications, employment experience and personal skills.

In Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ 2023 gender pay-gap reporting, using a snapshot of 5 April 2023, the male to female mean gender pay-gap for all employees (full time and part time) was 7% down by 2% from last year, which is lower than reported industry gender pay gap average. In accordance with the current Office for National Statistic, the nationwide average gap among all employees is approximately 14.3%. In light of the fact that 74% of the workforce and 67% of the part-time staff was female at this relevant date, it is not surprising to find that in part-time employment the gap is -7%; this means that part-time female employees on average hourly earn 7% more than their male counterparts. Although the company’s median pay-gap was at 32%, this is expected as the Company is predominantly female and as a result, the median point for female employees pay falls lower in the quartile spectrum than it does for male employees.

Most importantly, in relation to Duncan Lewis’ entire workforce (74% female and 26% male), the report found that company-wide, across all quartiles, males and female pay were represented equally:

• Top salary quartile: 26% men and 74% women
• Upper middle salary quartile: 26% men and 74% women
• Lower middle salary quartile: 26% men and 74% women
• Lower salary quartile: 25% men and 75% women

Jason Bruce, Duncan Lewis’ Practice Director states: “Our Gender Pay Gap Reporting is accurate for 5 April 2023. We are pleased to see that the mean gender pay-gap across all of our employees has reduced from last year and remains below industry average. Importantly, the Company’s pay quartile analysis across all of our roles remains very consistent with the male to female workforce split firm-wide. As of April 2023, women accounted for 74% of the Company’s top two pay quartiles respectively, and across all quartiles males and females were represented equally. Duncan Lewis remains a champion employer for females in the workplace – currently, 67% of the Company’s Board of Directors are female and we remain committed to the fair treatment and pay of all our employees regardless of gender”.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors recently won Law Firm of the Year at the prestigious 2024 Lexis Nexis Awards and remains a recognised top-tier practice in all of its key areas of law by the independent legal directly, The Legal 500 UK. Duncan Lewis continues to be accredited by the Investors in People at Gold Standard as evidence of its employee investment excellence and implements a number of family-friendly flexible working policies including hybrid-working. Nearly 20% of its employees (both male and female) are currently being supported with at least one form of flexible working (incl. Part Time, Adjusted Hours, Compressed Hours).

Click here to see a copy of the 5 April 2023 report.