The gender pay gap at Foster + Partners is the widest it has been since the data was first compiled six years ago despite an overall improvement at the UK's largest architecture firms year-on-year, official figures show.

Reported per the UK's legal requirement for companies with over 250 employees to reveal their gender pay gaps annually, Foster + Partners' median hourly gender pay gap for 2023/24 was 14.4 per cent.

This means that, taken as an average, for every £1 earned by the middle-ranking man at the firm, the middle-ranking woman earns only 86p.

Widening gap blamed on recruiting at junior levels

It compares to a 10.5 per cent disparity in median hourly pay at the studio the previous year and is the widest gap since Foster + Partners first started reporting on its gender pay gap in 2018, when it also stood at 10.5 per cent.

Foster + Partners, which has around 1,200 architectural staff in the UK, is by far the UK's largest studio.

It said that the increase in the gender pay gap is a result of recruiting more women than men over the preceding year since the studio has a policy to focus recruitment on junior levels.

"Foster + Partners has recruited more women than men during 2022/2023 as we encourage diversity," a spokesperson told Dezeen. "This year, we have the highest proportion of women in our workforce (40 per cent) since reporting began."

"To allow us to develop and nurture talent at the practice, the majority of our recruitment takes place at junior and graduate levels. This results in our median pay gap increasing to 14.4 per cent across all staff grades."

Despite the apparent lack of progress to close its gender pay gap, Foster + Partners still fares slightly better than many of its peers on pay equality.

Among the 19 architecture-focused organisations required to report, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Architectural Association (AA), the median hourly gender pay gap for 2023/24 was 14.8 per cent.

That marks a small improvement on the previous year when the gap was 15.2 per cent.

However, eight of the 19 organisations reported that their median gender pay gaps had widened year-on-year.

Besides Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Hawkins\Brown, Allies and Morrison, PRP Architects, AECOM, Stantec and Ryder Architecture were also in this category. All have been contacted for comment.

Architecture pay gap worse than UK average

Among architecture studios, Grimshaw Architects reported the smallest gender pay gap at 9.9 per cent, a reduction from 13.3 per cent the previous year.

BDP, the UK's second-largest architecture studio, has the widest at 20 per cent – with the gap having narrowed from 21 per cent year-on-year.

The Royal Institute of British Architects reported a 9.3 per cent gap following a marked narrowing from 15.1 per cent in 2022/23.

Having reported a 2.3 per cent gap last year, private architecture school the Architectural Association (AA) currently has no median gender pay gap – meaning the average middle-ranking woman staff member earns the same as the average middle-ranking man.

Companies with at least 250 staff in the UK have been legally required to report annually on their gender pay gaps since 2017/18, with 4 April the deadline to publish figures for the preceding financial year.

According to reporting by The Guardian, the gender pay gap across the UK economy is now 9.1 per cent – the lowest level since reporting became compulsory and significantly lower than the average gap at the largest architecture studios.

Men continue to dominate top-paid roles

Companies are also required to provide data on pay distribution and bonuses.

The figures for 2023/24 show that while women make up more than half of the lowest-paid roles at 14 of the 19 architecture-sector organisations above the 250-employee reporting threshold, men dominate the highest-paid jobs in all but the AA.

A higher proportion of men were paid bonuses than women at 14 of the organisations. More women received bonuses at the AA, PRP and Atkins, while at TP Bennett everyone received a bonus and at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris no-one received a bonus.

London studio BB Partnership, which lists 10 employees on its website, reports gender pay gap figures voluntarily. It disclosed a median hourly gender pay gap of minus 13.1 per cent for 2023/24 – meaning that women are paid more than men on average.

Gender pay gap figures reported to the UK government are based on a snapshot taken in early April each year.

The median is the metric most commonly used to present pay gap data as it provides the best indication of the typical worker's earnings and, unlike the mean which describes an overall average, is not distorted by extremes.

It has been illegal to pay men and women different amounts for doing the same jobs in the UK since 1970.

Figures recently published in Australia showed that the largest architecture studios operating in the country are failing to meet government targets on gender pay disparity.

Responses from organisations contacted for comment in relation to this story are published below.

Foster + Partners

A spokesperson said: "Foster + Partners has recruited more women than men during 2022/2023 as we encourage diversity. This year, we have the highest proportion of women in our workforce (40 per cent) since reporting began.

"To allow us to develop and nurture talent at the practice, the majority of our recruitment takes place at junior and graduate levels. This results in our median pay gap increasing to 14.4 per cent across all staff grades.

"Our pay gap is not an equal pay issue. Men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across the practice."

BDP

Nick Fairham, chief executive, said: "While we are confident that BDP colleagues are paid fairly and equally for the work they do, our senior leadership and highest-paid roles remain heavily male-dominated. Therefore, while we have seen a further reduction in the mean pay gap of 0.4 per cent this year, our results continue to be influenced by the higher proportion of men earning the highest salaries.

"We know that we need to make more progress to address this lack of representation at a senior level, and to remove any barriers that may be preventing women from moving into more senior positions. Addressing this will remain a key focus as we progress with our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, led by our EDI working group, BDP Belonging."

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)

A spokesperson said: "We have recently expanded into new markets and sectors as well as enhanced our multidisciplinary practice offering clients additional services and oversight.

"While impacting our latest pay gap reporting, this expansion has enabled ZHA to employ a significant number of new entry-level staff who have now begun their progression at ZHA with the firm's professional development programmes and tailored initiatives targeted to enable women at ZHA to excel and advance in their careers."

Hawkins\Brown

Hawkins\Brown said it did not have a further comment but referred to its full gender pay gap report.

The photo is by Christin Hume.