It is not all about the money. This was the message, loud and clear, for the second year from the 1,000 people questioned in the 2015 Estates Gazette Salary Survey.
Questions around discrimination in the workplace revealed a major headline figure – that a fifth of those surveyed said they felt discriminated against in their jobs. That is up by four percentage points on last year’s already shocking figure of 17%. Proof that, although great strides are being made towards making the property world a more equal place, there is still a long way to go. An issue that has already been raised in the 2015 Top Agents Survey.
When it comes to the grounds on which people felt the most sidelined, gender saw the most significant leap compared with last year as the figure jumped from 42% in 2014 to 50% in 2015.
Arguably, this is not surprising. The gender pay gap has widened rather than closed over the years – from 18% in 2012 to 23% this year. The average female salary comes in at £42,481 compared with an average male salary of £55,256.
But it is still a shock given the sheer volume of work that has been done to address this issue over the past year. Jackie Sadek, chief executive of UK Regeneration, says: “This survey result is simply astonishing, and extremely disappointing. Given the fantastic work over the past year by the RICS, Women in Property, and the launch of REWIRE, I would have thought this figure would have dropped considerably.
I can only hope that this is an indication that more people feel able to speak out. But this is a wake-up call to the industry.”
Louise Brooke-Smith, former president of the RICS and one of the industry’s most active and vocal equality champions, adds that the figure should not necessarily be seen in an entirely negative light. “This increase might be partly down to the fact that now this issue is much more out in the open,” she says. “And so people feel much safer and more comfortable discussing it and highlighting it as a problem. And people being able to speak out in this way is no bad thing. Obviously in an ideal world, that 21% will have come down by this time next year.”
And there are areas where improvement is already becoming clear. The figures for discrimination on the grounds of age dropped by two percentage points – though still remained the second-biggest problem area overall – and sexuality discrimination dropped from 9% in 2014 to 7% this year.
This survey result is simply astonishing. I can only hope that this is an indication that more people feel able to speak out. It is a wake-up call to the industry”
David Mann, partner at Tuffin Ferraby Taylor and co-founder of Freehold, the property sector’s LGBT networking group, says: “I think the last year has been a really important one for LGBT rights and equality in property. We are being asked by a lot of the big agents to come and speak to staff and we are seeing a lot of internal networks being set up. That, along with support from HR teams and well-known chief executives, is helping. I think banter in open-plan offices is being tempered as people are realising you have to be careful about what you say in the workplace.
“There are some real inclusion champions out there,” he adds. “Freehold went to a RICS event this year where Louise Brooke-Smith stood up and said: ‘You are very welcome.’ Those four words were so important. They marked a real change. To be welcomed in that way by a major industry institution bodes well for the future.”
While it may not all be about the money, financial spoils obviously play a huge part in the working lives of the UK’s property professionals and this was reflected on the more financial side of this year’s survey. The good news is that salaries are up across the board this year, with the average increase coming in at 5% – a rise of just under £2,500 from £47,228 in 2014 to £49,621.
And that is not even representative of the best-case scenario, says Christopher Mackenzie, managing director of Cobalt Recruitment. “The 5% salary increase is really in line with what we would have expected across the market for 2015. But what this doesn’t really reflect is that it is likely a higher percentage for those who have moved jobs in the last year, because that is where the real gains are and we predict that figure to be nearer 10%.”
And in more good news, two-thirds of respondents received pay increases at their last review. Bonuses were up too, by just under 7%.
For the first time, this year’s survey also asked respondents about their office preferences and locations, with some surprising results.
But first we drill down into the data to reveal who is earning what, which sectors saw the biggest pay increases over the past 12 months and which UK regions fared particularly well in the 2015 remuneration stakes.
