HKA Employer Statement for 2025: United Kingdom Gender Pay Gap

In this Employer Statement, you will find key information on HKA’s UK Gender Pay Gap results as of 5 April 2025 (the UK Government snapshot date). Detailed is our approach to our UK Gender Pay Gap, context and drivers, followed by the actions and strategies we are taking to continue to improve our UK Gender Pay Gap.

What the UK Gender Pay Gap tells us: The UK Gender Pay Gap tells us the difference between the mean (average) or median (midpoint) pay between women and men within the organisation across the UK workforce (in this context, this is across all our UK employees, regardless of role or level). Employee gender at HKA is disclosed on a voluntary basis. As per the UK Government guidelines, UK employees who identity as non-binary are excluded from the UK Gender Pay Gap calculations.  For reference, the lower the percentage, the better the Gender Pay Gap.

What the UK Gender Pay Gap does not tell us: The UK Gender Pay Gap is not the same as equal/fair pay as it does not indicate a disparity of pay within role levels. Equal/fair pay assesses whether individual women, men, or other gender identities with equivalent levels of experience and performance are paid differently for the same or equivalent work.

At HKA, we are passionate about having a talented and increasingly diverse global workforce. In the UK, our 2025 Gender Pay Gap results highlight that we have more progress to make, and we are committed to organically achieving a global merit-based gender balance of 50:50. Our focus is on taking meaningful, sustainable action that supports long‑term change which is also fair and inclusive to all.

Merit‑based gender equality remains a key priority for HKA, and our ambition is to organically achieve a global merit-based gender balance of 50:50. In 2025 our goal globally was to have 35.9% female colleagues and we achieved 37.2%. Our 2025 UK Gender Pay Gap average and median results have declined slightly when compared with 2024 (by 1.8% for the average and 3.2% for median), highlighting that we still have progress to make.

We are committed to taking meaningful action throughout 2026 and beyond to improve these results and continue moving toward a more balanced, merit‑based workforce globally through sustainable action that supports long-term change that is also fair and inclusive to all.

As of the government mandated snapshot date 5 April 2025, HKA is required to report on its UK Gender Pay Gap results, which are detailed in the six points below:

• Our UK employee population as of 5 April 2025, was comprised of 61% male and 39% female employees. In the upper pay quartile, male representation was higher at 77.2%, compared with 22.8% females. In contrast, the lower pay quartile showed lower male representation (33.3%) and higher female representation (66.7%). This gender distribution is consistent with the trend we observed in our 2024 results. 

• HKA’s average UK Gender Pay Gap for average hourly pay as of 5 April 2025 was 34.7%
  • Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s average hourly salary, expressed as a percentage of men’s hourly salary, across all levels.
  • Analysis: The Average hourly pay for men has reduced by 3.46 pence since 2024 and the female average hourly pay has also reduced, by 3.47 pence since 2024.
  • Status: The 2025 UK average Gender Pay Gap result is 34.7% and this result has widened by 1.8% since

• HKA’s median (middle point) UK Gender Pay Gap for hourly pay as of 5 April 2025 was 37.3%
  • Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s median (the middle point) hourly salary, expressed as a percentage of men’s hourly salary, across all levels.
  • Analysis: The median hourly pay for men has increased by 2.83 pence since 2024, and the female median hourly pay has also increased by 0.26 pence, therefore the gap has widened.
  • Status: The 2025 UK median Gender Pay Gap result is 37.2% and this result has widened by 3.2% since 2024.

• HKA’s percentage of men and women receiving bonus as of 5 April 2025. All our reward decisions are based on merit and reward is connected to business performance which fuels a bonus pot.
  • Analysis: Of the UK employees who received a bonus in the year preceding the snapshot date (April 2024–April 2025) which represents 52% of UK employees, a slightly higher proportion were female (55%) compared to male (50%).
  • Status: The 2025 result (55% female vs. 50% male receiving a bonus) has widened since 2024, wherein 75% of females received a bonus vs. 53% of males.

• HKA’s average UK Gender Pay Gap for bonus pay as of 5 April 2025 was 35.4%
  • Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s average bonus pay, expressed as a percentage of men’s bonus pay, across all levels.
  • Analysis: Of the UK employees who received a bonus in the year preceding the snapshot date (April 2024 – April 2025)- which represents 52% of UK employees, the average bonus pay for those male employees was GBP 5,672 vs. GBP 3,665 for those female employees. This results in a 35.4% bonus Gender Pay Gap for 2025, vs. a result of 9% in 2024.
  • Status: This result has widened by 26.4% since 2024.

• HKA’s median (the middle point) UK Gender Pay Gap for bonus pay as of 5 April 2025 was 19.4%
  • Definition: This is the difference between women and men’s median (the middle point)
  • Analysis: Of the 52% of employees who received a bonus in the year preceding the snapshot date (April 2024 – April 2025), the median bonus pay for the 50% of male employees who received a bonus was GBP 3,720, compared to GBP 3,000 for the 55% of female employees who received a bonus. This has resulted in a 19.4% gender pay gap in median bonus pay, which has improved since our 2024 result of 40%.
  • Improvement: This result has improved by 20.6% since 2024.

To see the full 2025 report for HKA’s UK Gender Pay Gap results, please visit the UK Government Gender Pay Gap Service: UK Gender pay gap reports for HKA GLOBAL LTD. – Gender pay gap service 

While HKA are required to submit to the UK Government only the above six Gender Pay Gap results each year, we note that the above results consider the Gender Pay Gap across the board (i.e. regardless of level). We have therefore carried out additional analysis (level by level) and share these insights to support understanding of HKA’s UK Gender Pay Gap results.

Majority of our senior employees as of 5 April 2025 were male i.e. fee-earning Partners (85% male) and non-fee earning Partners (73% male). Typically, senior roles such as these attract higher salaries, and as proportionally at HKA in the UK more males occupy these roles than females, our Gender Pay Gap results are impacted by this.

Percentage of Fee-Earning Male and Female employees by Management Level as of 5 April 2025

Percentage of Non-Fee- Earning Male and Female employees by Management Level as of 5 April 2025

As of 5 April 2025, HKA in the UK had more male than female employees (61% vs. 39%), hired, promoted and retained based on merit. Additionally, we had more males (78%) in UK-based senior positions i.e. Partner, Principal and Director level than females (22%) in these positions, which typically attract higher total rewards and thus impact our UK Gender Pay Gap.

At HKA, there were two main outcomes after applying the UK Government criteria to our UK Gender Pay Gap data:

• As of 5 April 2025, HKA’s UK workforce comprised of 39% females and 61% males, hired, promoted and retained based on merit. Employee gender at HKA is disclosed on a voluntary basis. As per the UK Government guidelines, UK employees who identity as non-binary are currently excluded from the UK Gender Pay Gap calculations.
• As of 5 April 2025, in the UK we had more males (78%) in UK-based senior positions i.e. Partner, Principal and Director level than females (22%) in these positions. Senior roles typically attract higher total reward, and proportionally at HKA in the UK more men occupy our senior roles than women, thus impacting our UK Gender Pay Gap. This does not mean there is a pay disparity in role levels, as UK Gender Pay Gap considers the whole UK workforce, regardless of role/level.

HKA UK is committed to improving our UK Gender Pay Gap through a fair and merit-based approach, including, total reward, clear career progression routes to Partnership, and comprehensive learning and development opportunities, including mentorship. We also have enhanced our UK family-friendly policies and an established a dedicated Europe (including the UK) Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee. Our goal is to foster a healthy, open, and merit based high-performing culture while actively working to prevent discrimination.

HKA recognises that achieving merit-based gender pay equality takes time, cultural change, and action in several different areas.  Successful actions we are taking to continue to improve our UK Gender Pay Gap and tackle some of the drivers outlined above, include:

1. A fair and merit-based UK total reward approach– clearly communicated and embedded through the inclusion of gender and performance metrics to support fair and merit-based decision-making. In addition, we refer to objective internal and external benchmarking data to eliminate bias. We implement global equality, diversity and inclusion principles in all employment decisions.

2. Clear career progression routes to Partnership in the UK – To positively influence the gender pay gap in our global Partner team, we have a self-application-based, robust, and transparent Partner track program that provides direction, mentorship and development to enable our top talent to achieve Partner status.

3. Learning and development opportunities in the UK, including mentoring– To help HKA employees progress in their careers, learning and development opportunities are available to all, regardless of role, level or location. HKA also has an established global mentor program supported by a mentor matching platform to help mentees grow because they have selected the mentor that suits them, providing them with opportunities to learn and develop professionally.

4. Our corporate signatory for Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses (ERE) – HKA has signed the ERE pledge to support Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses. The ERE pledge aims to enhance the global representation of women as expert witnesses in dispute resolution procedures, striving ultimately for complete gender parity.

5. Our corporate signatory for Equal Representation in Arbitration (ERA) – In recognition of the under-representation of women on international arbitral tribunals, HKA has signed the ERA pledge. The Pledge seeks to increase, on an equal opportunity basis, the number of women appointed as arbitrators in order to achieve a fair representation as soon practically possible, with the ultimate goal of full parity.

6. UK Family-friendly policies – To support attraction and retention and gender equality, we have an enhanced parental leave policy for our UK employees. In addition, we support our UK employees’ flexible working arrangements to fit around their family life.

7. Europe (including the UK) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee– HKA has established executive-sponsored, employee-led ED&I Committees in each of our regions. These committees are committed to improving gender equality, making HKA a more inclusive place to work for everyone, and coming together to recognise and celebrate noteworthy international days such as International Women’s and Men’s Day.

8. We are promoting a healthy, open, honest, high-performing merit-based culture and preventing discrimination– In the UK, HKA is an equal opportunities employer. We put merit first while believing that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, belief or religion, sex and sexual orientation). Additionally, we ensure our employees know how they can raise concerns and have embedded Grievance, Whistleblowing and Disciplinary policies.

At HKA, Equality is for everyone. Diversity valued. Inclusion always.