Grant Thornton expands pay gap reporting to class and disability as gender pay gap halves and female leadership rises
Grant Thornton UK today announced the publication of its class and disability pay gap data for the first time, expanding its existing reporting across gender and ethnicity. The move marks a significant step in the firm’s long-term commitment to improving equity, transparency and representation across all levels of the organisation.
The newly published data (from a snapshot taken in April 2025) shows positive progress across all strands of inclusion and diversity. Overall, pay gaps continue to narrow, and like-for-like analysis confirms that people are paid comparably for equivalent roles. While the firm recognises that further progress is needed, particularly in senior-level representation, the data demonstrates that targeted action is driving long-term, sustainable change.
Key findings from Grant Thornton’s pay gap reporting
Gender
The gender pay gap across employees has reduced from 22% in 2022 to 11% in 2025. Increased female representation at senior levels, particularly at director level, which rose from 22% in 2022 to 37% in 2025, has contributed to this improvement. With partners included in the data, an encouraging 5% decrease in the gender pay gap has been seen year on year (from 33% in 2024 to 28% in 2025).
Retention following parental leave has also strengthened significantly, with female retention rising from 67.7% to 72.3% and male retention improving from 57.3% to 61.2%. These shifts reflect enhancements made to family leave and flexible working options for all genders.
Ethnicity
The ethnicity pay gap across employees has fallen from 14% in 2022 to 10% in 2025. Increased ethnic minority representation across all grades is creating a stronger pipeline of future senior leaders.
This is reflected when the data includes partner representation, with the mean ethnicity pay gap demonstrating a 4% decrease on last year’s figures, from 33% to 29%.
Class
This is the first reporting period for which Grant Thornton has published its class pay gap. At 6.55% the 2024/25 class pay gap is the lowest recorded since monitoring began in 2022, decreasing by 1.85% compared with the previous year. The class bonus gap has halved year-on-year, falling from 21% in 2024 to 10% in 2025.
Disability
Grant Thornton is also publishing its disability pay gap for the first time. The 2024/25 regulatory pay gap is 3%, supported by balanced representation of disabled colleagues at junior (15%) and senior levels (14%).
Abigail Fisher, Chief People Officer at Grant Thornton UK, said:
“Pay gap reporting is a vital part of how we hold ourselves accountable for creating a truly inclusive firm. Transparency enables us to understand where inequities exist, challenge ourselves on where progress is too slow and ensure that everyone has access to meaningful opportunities to succeed.
“We chose to publish our class and disability pay gap data because socioeconomic background and disability shape people’s experiences at work just as powerfully as gender or ethnicity. By shining a light on these areas, we can take more targeted action, focus our investment where it matters most and continue building a firm where everyone feels they belong.”
Progress underpinned by action
In 2025, Grant Thornton delivered a wide programme of activity across gender, ethnicity, class and disability to address systemic barriers and improve the experiences of underrepresented colleagues.
These included:
- Achieving Top 10 Working Families Employer status and recognition as a Times Top 50 Employer for Gender Equality.
- Increased investment in programmes supporting ethnic minority talent, such as Amplify and Aspire.
- Strengthening mentoring and launching the Catalyst programme to support early potential talent from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Achieving Bronze in the Business Disability Forum’s Smart Audit and embedding a disability champion model across the firm.
A continued focus on the future
Grant Thornton will continue publishing class and disability pay gap data annually and will build on its commitments with targeted plans across all strands of diversity. Future priorities include expanding socioeconomic mentoring, enhancing digital accessibility, strengthening support for carers and broadening leadership accountability for representation and fair progression.