As part of our commitment to support a diverse and inclusive profession, this guidance has been developed for architecture practices to work towards closing the gender and ethnicity pay gap.
These tools and resources provide a series of recommended measures and actions practices can take to monitor, evaluate, and address the issues underlying inequality in the profession and wider built environment.
Find out about data reporting basics and the legal requirements of organisations that must report their pay gap data
Explore the details to consider when interpreting data and looking at its context within the architecture profession more broadly
View our comprehensive list of recommended actions that practices can take to address existing pay gaps within their workplace
View our gender and ethnicity pay gap guidance in full with our updated easy to read/print file or our original PDF file.
The gender and ethnicity pay gap is the difference in the amount that individuals of different genders and ethnic groups in an organisation, on average, are paid for each hour worked. This ‘gap’ most often results in women/those from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds* making less than men/white colleagues and for similar work.
Many of the measures adopted to improve gender and racial equality are also likely to improve diversity more broadly.
The diversity of a workforce has been found to provide a competitive edge and companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians.
Addressing the gender and ethnicity pay gap is not only a matter of fairness and equality – it also makes good business sense. There is clear evidence that diverse teams perform better, and that having different perspectives makes teams more creative and innovative.
*Note on language: we note that categories of racial and ethnic identity present difficulties of use and interpretation. Where an overarching category is needed, the preference will be for ‘Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds’ (avoiding the use of the acronym where possible). This terminology was chosen to highlight in a useful way the specificity of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic experiences in the UK and it most easily related to existing statistical data collected on demographics.
Thank you to our past and ongoing contributors to this work: Lucy Carmichael, Carys Rowlands, RIBA EDI Leaders Action group, Jo Bacon, Allies and Morrison, Grimshaw Architects, AHMM, Bruce Tehther, and the Fawcett Society.
We continue to learn and develop our understanding of what works. If you have any comments or additions, we would like to hear from you. Please contact: inclusionanddiversity@riba.org.
