{"id":13108,"date":"2026-04-13T13:27:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13108\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:27:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:27:56","slug":"is-the-gender-pay-gap-closing-at-the-uks-biggest-architecture-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13108\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the gender pay gap closing at the UK\u2019s biggest architecture practices?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The average median pay gap across 17 of the biggest practices sits at 13.1 per cent, a slight fall from the 14.9 per cent reported to government by the same companies in the previous year.<\/p>\n

The AJ has added Gensler and tp bennett to the roster of architects it now monitors each year. Excluding these two companies, the pay gap decreased to 13.5 per cent from 15.5 per cent in 2024, marking a further drop from the 16.2 per cent recorded by the 15 practices a year earlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The median pay gap records the difference, as a snapshot of data from 5 April 2025, between how much is paid per hour to the median-earning female employee and the median-earning male employee.<\/p>\n

The data is published by the government<\/a>, which requires large companies with 250 or more employees to submit their gender pay statistics.<\/p>\n

Newly published data shows that the pay gap actually grew at four of the practices that reported their pay gap.<\/p>\n

The largest increase, of 8.2 per cent, was at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), which now has a median gap of 14.5 per cent. This is a surprise turnaround from last year\u2019s figures, which showed the median gender pay gap falling by 9.5 per cent to 6.3 per cent, making it, then, comfortably the lowest of any practice.<\/p>\n

The company with the smallest disparity is now tp bennett, whose gap is 6.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for ZHA explained that \u2018women and men in equivalent roles are paid equally\u2019. They said: \u2018Our employment policies and criteria are wholly factored on merit, accounting for the skillset, knowledge, and relevant experience of each candidate.<\/p>\n

\u2018Significantly more women than men began joined our lower and lower-middle pay quartiles\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Over the period, the proportion of new staff beginning their careers in architecture comprised significantly more women than men joining our lower and lower-middle pay quartiles.<\/p>\n

\u2018The increase in the percentage of young women architects choosing to start their professional journeys at ZHA is evident in our gender pay gap this year.Is the gender pay gap closing at the UK\u2019s biggest architecture practices?<\/p>\n

They added: \u2018We continue to enhance programmes to ensure the ongoing progression of our younger generation of women architects [so that they] enter ZHA\u2019s upper pay quartiles this year.<\/p>\n

The architecture practice with the largest median pay gap is Corstophine + Wright, at 25.4 per cent. However, the practice recorded a 7.5 per cent decrease in the gap from 2025 and more women (90.1 per cent) than men (82.9 per cent) received a bonus.<\/p>\n

Average pay gap
\n13.1%
\n14.9%
\n-1.8%<\/p>\n

Practice name
\nGender pay gap (hourly pay) \u2013 Median 2025\/6
\nGender pay gap (hourly pay) \u2013 Median 2024\/5
\nIncrease in pay gap (percentage points)<\/p>\n

Aecom
\n14.5%
\n13.9%
\n+0.6%<\/p>\n

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
\n12.1%
\n17%
\n-4.9%<\/p>\n

Allies and Morrison
\n11.2%
\n16.6%
\n-5.4%<\/p>\n

AtkinsRealis
\n13.1%
\n14.1%
\n-1.0%<\/p>\n

BDP
\n17.6%
\n16.4%
\n+1.2%<\/p>\n

Corstorphine + Wright
\n25.4%
\n32.9%
\n-7.5%<\/p>\n

Foster + Partners
\n10%
\n12.3%
\n\u20132.3%<\/p>\n

Grimshaw
\n9.6%
\n9.9%
\n-0.3%<\/p>\n

HawkinsBrown
\n9.4%
\n11.7%
\n-2.3%<\/p>\n

PRP
\n9.4%
\n18%
\n-8.6%<\/p>\n

Purcell
\n10.1%
\n15.6%
\n-5.5%<\/p>\n

Ryder
\n17.3%
\n21.5%
\n-4.2%<\/p>\n

Sheppard Robson
\n11.6%
\n10.2%
\n+1.4%<\/p>\n

Stride Treglown
\n16%
\n16.3%
\n-0.3%<\/p>\n

Zaha Hadid Architects
\n14.5%
\n6.3%
\n+8.2%<\/p>\n

Gensler*
\n13.5%
\n14.5%
\n-1.0%<\/p>\n

tp bennett*
\n6.5%
\n6.8%
\n-0.3%<\/p>\n

*Gensler and tp bennett were not included in previous comparisons
** Excluding Gensler and tp bennett, the pay gap has decreased from 15.5% to 13.5%<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the RIBA\u2019s gender pay gap<\/a> almost doubled from 6.3 per cent to 11.3 per cent. The institute also released its median ethnicity pay gap figures, which showed that it had increased to 10.79 per cent, up from 10.45 per cent the previous year.<\/p>\n

In a statement released with the data, RIBA chief executive Valerie Vaughan-Dick said: \u2018This year\u2019s results show that gender and ethnicity pay gaps remain within our organisation. While year-on-year movements can reflect changes in workforce composition and progression patterns, we recognise that sustained and deliberate action is required to reduce these gaps over time.<\/p>\n

\u2018We continue to review how and where we advertise roles to ensure opportunities are communicated as widely as possible, and we explicitly welcome applicants from all backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u2018In 2026\/27, we plan to implement a new HR system including an applicant tracking tool to strengthen how we collect and analyse workforce data, and to broaden our reporting over time, including exploring disability pay gap reporting.\u2019<\/p>\n

She concluded: \u2018We recognise there is more work to do. We remain committed to examining our policies, progression pathways and recruitment practices to ensure RIBA is an inclusive, fair and equitable place to work, and we will continue to report openly on our progress.<\/p>\n

\u2018We also acknowledge the current binary framework of gender pay reporting and would welcome a more inclusive approach in future legislation.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average median pay gap across 17 of the biggest practices sits at 13.1 per cent, a slight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6138,6139,5,6,6140],"class_list":{"0":"post-13108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-gender-pay-gap","9":"tag-riba","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-zaha-hadid-architects"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116397637817433873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}