McKinsey sets 40% target for female consultants by 2020

Management consultancy McKinsey & Company has set a target of 40% female consultants, including 30% female partners and 15% female senior partners by 2020 as its gender pay audit shows women are paid an average of 24% less than men per hour.

The firm says the difference in hourly pay is due to “the disproportionately high number of men in senior roles”. This also affects bonus pay where its average gender pay gap rises to 76% (with a median of 52%).

It states: “Put simply, there are not enough women in senior positions in our UK office and across our firm, and this is why we are seeing this disparity in both hourly rates and bonus payments.”

The firm has been publishing research that advocates greater gender diversity in the workplace for over 15 years and it says its new Diversity Matters report, launching later this month, builds on this, demonstrating that having more women in executive positions boosts a company’s bottom line.

The pay audit says that in addition to its target of getting more senior female managers, it is looking to recruit more high-performing women and says over 40% of its new consultants in 2017 were women. It also runs a number of programmes and initiatives to attract talented female applicants, including its Women as Future Leaders network, unconscious-bias training for all interviewers and says it ensures female colleagues are visible at all stages of the recruitment process. In addition it has introduced targeted programmes for future leaders like its Women’s Leadership Workshop and its Pathway to Partner programme.

It says: “We are far from having all the answers—or delivering the full results we aspire to—but our understanding of what’s holding back progress, and of how to accelerate it, is growing. Our gender-pay-gap numbers are a timely reminder that we still have some way to go, but we are encouraged by the progress we have already made and by the desire we have to get this right.”

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