The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has made further progress against its diversity targets, its latest Diversity Pay Gap report has revealed.

The pensions lifeboat made improvements in both its ethnicity pay and bonus gaps, with the proportion of ethnic minority employees in the highest paid quartile rising from 22.3 per cent in 2023 to 28.9 per cent in 2024.

Its median and mean ethnicity pay gaps also fell over the year, to 10 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively, while the ethnic minority employee population increased to 31.5 per cent.

Furthermore, the PPF surpassed its target of 45 per cent for female representation in senior management, with 48 per cent of its leadership team being women.

However, the PPF’s median gender pay gap rose from 17.5 per cent in 2023 to 17.8 per cent, while the difference in the mean hourly rate of pay widened from 15.8 per cent to 19 per cent in 2024.

There was also an increase in the median bonus pay gap from 19.3 per cent in 2023 to 21.9 per cent in 2024.

Disclosure of disabilities and long-term health conditions (LTHC) remained stable at more than 80 per cent.

The difference in the disability median hourly rate was -3.1 per cent in 2024, while the difference in mean hourly rate was 5.2 per cent.

To make further progress in addressing the ethnicity bonus gap, the PPF issued its support for projects led by Investment 20/20, the Diversity Project, and 10,000 Interns Foundation.

“Fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace is vitally important to us - it creates a better place to work and ultimately makes us better at delivering our service for our members,” stated PPF chief operating officer, Katherine Easter.

“Monitoring our pay gaps, and setting targets, has helped us make positive progress over time. While there is further to go, its particularly pleasing that we’ve made more progress in the last year on reducing our ethnicity pay and bonus gaps and further increased female representation in our senior management.”

PPF chief executive officer, Michelle Ostermann, added: “As well as celebrating the improvements we have made over the last 12 months, it’s essential we reflect on the targets we’ve not yet met and consider what we can do to accelerate progression.

“As we reflect on the role we have played in society over the last two decades, and set out our vision for the future, we continue to be committed to attracting and nurturing diverse talent who will be pivotal in shaping our future organisation and look forward to publishing our new diversity, equity and inclusion commitments in the coming months.”

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