JLL's UK gender pay report shows that it is Closing the Gap'

JLL has today published its first gender pay report, Closing the Gap. It shows that JLL's UK business had a mean gender pay gap of 36.7% and a median gender pay gap of 6.6%

March 26, 2018

JLL has today published its first gender pay reportClosing the Gap. It shows that JLL's UK business had a mean gender pay gap of 36.7% and a median gender pay gap of 6.6%.

The reason for the gender pay gap is that there are fewer women in senior leadership positions, with JLL reporting four-fifths of its most senior roles in the UK currently occupied by men. However, over the last two years, the number of women in JLL's top positions has increased by around one-third and, over the same period, its mean and median gender pay gaps have narrowed.

Virginia Rothwell, HR Director at JLL UK, said: "Whilst we have some way to go before we are the gender balanced organisation we want to be - we are working hard to achieve this. 

"We have long been committed to equal pay, and our gender pay gap is more a function of the past make-up of the property industry than an indication of the future. Historically, it has been very male-dominated and as a result men have held the vast majority of the most senior jobs. To address this, we believe we must increase the representation of women in our senior roles. We have made good progress but we will not rest until our business reflects the society in which we operate."

JLL is taking measures to achieve a better gender balance at every grade within its business including:

  • For the past three years JLL's staffing levels have been broadly balanced with an equal ratio of men and women;
  • In 2017, 48% of new employees recruited were women;       
  • At entry level, JLL continues to attract and select an even mix of women and men. Over time, this will feed through the business to improve the gender balance at all levels;
  • JLL recently introduced gender-balanced shortlists to ensure it starts from a balanced pool of candidates;
  • 59% of employees on JLL's mentoring scheme are female.

Between 2015 and 2018 the proportion of women recruited through JLL's UK graduate programme went up from 44% to 48% and the number of women being put forward for promotion increased from 31% to 37% over the same period.   

JLL also recently appointed Claire England to the newly created role of director of diversity and inclusion which will help accelerate these changes. Ms. England is responsible for the delivery of JLL's public diversity and inclusion targets in the UK under its broader Building a Better Tomorrow programme.

Chris Ireland, JLL UK CEO concluded: "We are well into our journey and, while there's still work to be done, the good news is JLL's gender pay gap is narrowing.  This is being driven by the initiatives we've introduced to support our talent pipeline, diversity and building a family-friendly working environment.

"Gender pay gap reports may make uncomfortable reading, but we are pleased that the Government is making businesses publish this information. The data that will become available will provide a valuable benchmark which will help us achieve our ambition for a more equitable industry for tomorrow, and will also shine a long overdue light on the gender picture across UK plc as a whole."