Seventeen per cent of people feel they have been discriminated against in their job, according the 2014 Estates Gazette Salary Survey, on the grounds of at least one of the following :
• Gender 42%
• Age 38%
• Race 13%
• Sexuality 9%
• Disability 4%
To clarify, 17% is nearly one fifth of the 1,300 people questioned for the Estates Gazette salary survey. That is more than 250 people who feel they have been discriminated against at work.
It is fair to say the property industry doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to diversity – despite huge steps being taken to rectify what was once far more widespread inequality – but this figure brings the continued severity of the issue into sharp focus.
“My God. Seventeen per cent? Seventeen per cent? We still have such a long way to go,” says Jackie Sadek, policy adviser to cities minister Greg Clark.
David Mann, partner at building consultancy Tuffin Ferraby Taylor and co-founder of Freehold, the networking and support group for LGBT real estate professionals, adds that the issue becomes particularly concerning when there is a potential link – whether real or perceived – between discrimination and salaries.
“People who are not progressing up the career ladder or feel in some way undervalued tend to look at themselves to try to work out why that discrimination is happening,” he says.
“If there is something different about you – your ethnicity, your sexuality – you may believe it has something to do with that.”
And it isn’t just diversity which produced headline-grabbing figures this year. After five consecutive years of salary surveys focusing on the money – or lack thereof between 2009 and 2011 – a more settled 2014 looks to have given the industry some pause for thought across the board. For the first year in the survey’s 23-year history, salary was not listed as the most important element of the respondents’ job – coming second to “challenging and interesting work”.
Last year, respondents were buzzing over £5,000 salary hikes fresh off the back of a renewed upswing, and the return of the bonus. But,12 months on, against the backdrop of a more modest rise of less than £1,000 from an average salary of £47,065 to £47,228 and a calmer, more secure jobs market, attentions have turned to issues such as work/life balance and positivity in the workplace. “After last year’s focus on pay rises, it is very encouraging for the industry as a whole that people are now more focused on interesting and challenging work – this can only benefit productivity and success,” says Christopher Mackenzie, UK director of Cobalt Recruitment.
“As for the statistics on diversity, we have had more than one individual register with us this year because they were told the timing of them having children would hinder their progression or promotion opportunities.
“But more positively, we have also had increasing requests over the past 12 months from clients asking for a more diverse candidate pool to choose from, particularly when it comes to socio-economic background and gender.”
Over the next four pages we drill down into the data to reveal how the UK property sector feels about working in the industry in 2014-15, as well as uncovering the hotly anticipated stats around bonuses, pay increases and which regions and areas of work have seen the biggest salary hikes over the past year.
emily.wright@estatesgazette.com
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