Hogan Lovells joins Business Leaders' call on Prime Minister to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting
London, 15 October 2020 – Hogan Lovells has joined 30 business leaders in asking the government to introduce a mandatory duty for employers to report on their ethnicity pay gap.
Brought together by Business in the Community (BITC) and its Race Equality Leadership Team, Hogan Lovells is amongst other employers to sign a written a letter to Boris Johnson, urging him to recognise that a mandatory duty to report is seen as a tool to create fair workplaces rather than a burden.
Sandra Kerr CBE, race director at BITC, commented: "I hope that this letter will represent a line in the sand for the government. Now, only they can take the steps needed to help all businesses follow in the footsteps of forerunners like the members of BITC’s race leadership team. Employers aren’t running scared from ethnicity pay gap reporting – and neither should the Prime Minister."
Hogan Lovells Global Managing Partner for Diversity & Inclusion and Responsible Business, Susan Bright, said: "At Hogan Lovells, we're committed to embedding a culture of inclusion for our people regardless of background and personal characteristics. We want our people to feel able to be themselves at work, in a high performing, inclusive environment. In line with our commitment to increase representation of Black and ethnic minority people at all levels in the firm, we have been reporting UK ethnicity pay gap data voluntarily for the last two years. A mandatory duty to report on ethnicity pay gaps would allow businesses to set clear goals for the attraction, retention and promotion of Black and ethnic minority talent and further tackle discrimination."
The firm has signed the BiTC Race at Work Charter – they have five calls to action that we have committed to. Last year, we were recognised for our progress in collecting race/ ethnicity data through our Self ID campaign, which we run on an annual basis.
Hogan Lovells has also signed the Race Fairness Commitment, a data-driven charter examining the recruitment and progression of Black, ethnic minority and white employees, as well as commitments to training, monitoring and mentorship aiming to identify areas for improvement and development.