Zurich UK chips at class ceiling

London, 12 February 2025

Zurich UK today announces the publication of its social mobility pay data alongside eight initiatives designed to tackle barriers to career progression for employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Zurich is the first insurer to publish this data, and one of just a handful of companies in the UK to do so.

Analysis across 73% of Zurich UK’s 5,000-strong UK workforce¹ shows the median (mid-point) socio-economic pay gap* between employees from professional and lower socio-economic backgrounds is –4.2%. In comparison, the mean average pay gap at the insurer is 10.5% between those from professional and lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Zurich’s UK workforce is split 28% from professional backgrounds, 10% from intermediate backgrounds and 23% from lower socio-economic backgrounds.¹The Social Mobility Commission reported that the composition of the entire financial services workforce is 45% from a professional background, 21% intermediate and 34% from a lower background.²

Steve Collinson, Chief HR Officer at Zurich UK said:

“Today’s announcement represents a firm commitment from us to understand and implement social equity drivers within our organisation. Sharing these pay gaps, alongside the measures implemented to enable social mobility, is a great way to shine a light on what is currently the best kept secret in DEI; social mobility is the linchpin of shifting the dial on multiple diversity characteristics.

“Whilst 'chipping away’ at the class ceiling is certainly a step in the right direction, smashing it is the ultimate goal. Social mobility is the next step in achieving a truly diverse workplace and I'm proud to say that at Zurich, your socio-economic start in life doesn’t determine your future career.”

Zurich UK has introduced a programme to support career progression and remove barriers to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Zurich’s eight initiatives for social equity:

• Social mobility ambassadors’ group: volunteer members raise awareness and build new policies while aiding others in workplace progression.
• Skills-based hiring: remove barriers faced by having limited work experience.
• Removed unnecessary qualifications from job descriptions: remove qualifications such as university degrees if they’re not necessary to the role.
• Donate clothes to Suited & Booted London: help vulnerable, unemployed and low-income men get access to suitable interview clothing, advice and mentoring.
• Awareness training: help people leaders and hiring managers to understand social mobility barriers.
• Internal mobility and up-skilling opportunities: create and support apprenticeships, development programmes and succession planning to aid progression.
• Share data: One of three insurers to contribute internal data to the Bridge Group/Progress Together data report to compile the largest ever study into socio-economic diversity and progression in financial services.
• ‘Social capital’ inclusion programme: partners new starters without corporate experience with senior leaders who provide advice on network building and skills to accelerate a sense of belonging and enable long-term rewarding corporate careers.

12% class pay gap across UK businesses

The Social Mobility Foundation has been calling for employers to measure and report on their class pay gap following research that those from working-class background are paid an average of £6,287 or 12% less than those from professional backgrounds – despite being in the same professional occupations.³

Sarah Atkinson, CEO of Social Mobility Foundation said:

“It’s great to see companies like Zurich UK taking the lead by voluntarily publishing their socio-economic pay gap and taking steps to ensure that your background doesn’t determine your pay or career progression. We hope this will encourage more employers to act on social mobility, including by taking part in our Social Mobility Employer Index.

“No matter your background, being fairly rewarded for your work is what we all expect. But our research shows that in professional occupations people from working-class backgrounds are paid less than their peers from higher socio-economic backgrounds – effectively working 1 in 8 days for free. This is holding both brilliant people and the UK economy back.

“The upcoming Equality (Race and Disability) Bill plans to make ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting compulsory for all large employers. We’re calling on the government to introduce mandatory socio-economic background reporting at the same time. This small change could make a huge difference to our understanding of the barriers to opportunity, meaning we can then break them down.”

The Class Ceiling: Socio-economic diversity in senior leadership teams

Research shows that socio-economic diversity at senior levels in financial services does not match that at junior levels creating a ‘class ceiling’ - employees are joining the industry but do not have the opportunities to progress.⁴

As part of efforts to crack the ‘class ceiling’, Zurich UK asks employees to voluntarily share their socio-economic background. The data shows that one in five senior leaders at Zurich UK are from a lower socio-economic background.⁵

Almost nine in ten senior roles in financial services are held by people from higher socio-economic backgrounds, compared to just a third of the UK working population, with someone’s background much more likely to impact their career progression in financial services than gender or ethnicity.⁴

However, there are signs that this is improving across the industry. The proportion of senior roles occupied by people from lower socio-economic backgrounds increased from 26% to 28% year-on-year.⁴

Notes in Editors

*Zurich UK measures pay gaps on a mean and median basis as well as dividing employees into quartiles to help measure and understand pay gaps.

• The median is the difference in hourly rate of pay of the middle person of each group compared to one another. The employees in each group (e.g. lower, intermediate and professional backgrounds) are put in order of earnings and the one in the middle represents a real person. This figure will never be impacted by a single high earner like the mean, but it does not illustrate the range of pay for the two groups.
• The mean is the average rate of pay between groups calculated by adding all the individual hourly pay of employees in a group and dividing by the number of employees. The results can be impacted by single individuals such as high earning employees.
• A negative percentage figure reveals that typically or overall, employees who are in the higher socio-economic background (SEB) group have lower pay than employees in the lower SEB group. A positive percentage figure reveals that typically or overall, employees in the lower SEB group have lower pay than employees in the higher SEB group. A zero figure would reveal no pay gap between the two groups.

¹ Zurich UK workforce data, April 2024: Professional (28.4%), Undisclosed (27.2%), Lower (23%), Intermediate (9.7%), Prefer not to say (8.1%), Other (3.6%). Total disclosed: 72.8%.
² Socio-economic diversity and inclusion toolkit: financial and professional services – Social Mobility Commission for the Department of Education, 2021
³ The Class Pay Gap – The Social Mobility Foundation, 2024
⁴ Shaping the Sector Data Report – The Bridge Group/Progress Together, 2024
⁵ Zurich UK senior leadership group data, April 2024: Professional (42.9%), Lower (21.8%) Undisclosed (16.7%), Intermediate (10.3%), Prefer not to say (6.4%), Other (1.9%).