Our thinking

Mind the (socioeconomic pay) gap

28 February, 2025

On average, employees from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are paid 12% less than those from middle class backgrounds despite being in the same profession. What’s more, the ‘class ceiling’ (a term used to describe how an employee’s socio-economic profile limits their ability to progress in their career), is a bigger influence on career progression than gender or ethnicity.   

Yet we don’t often talk about the socio-economic pay gap; conversation usually begins and ends at recruitment and hiring practices, rarely focusing on how employees progress once they’re in a job.  

But Zurich UK is pushing against the tide, becoming the first UK insurer to publish its socioeconomic pay gap, as part of a ‘commitment to understand and implement social equity drivers’. Their disclosure reveals a median pay gap of 4.2% between employees from professional and lower socio-economic backgrounds, which they hope to reduce through a series of initiatives they will implement to improve their social equity, including skills-based hiring and support of apprenticeships and programmes that enable progression. 

Zurich UK’s support of apprenticeship programmes speaks to the hugely effective routes that apprenticeships can provide to help people into employees. A recent report urges government support for businesses to enhance social mobility, highlighting targeted apprenticeship incentives for marginalized groups. 

At a time where DEI initiatives are being stripped back and socio-economic mobility falls to the bottom of the pile, it’s refreshing to see a maintained effort to drive forward change, even if it’s not easy.

By Rosie Serlin