Oystercatchers is going to start including gender pay gap data in its agency profiles when running pitches for the first time.
The consultancy started adding agencies’ diversity stats in its agency profiles in 2016 after US brands including Verizon, HP and General Mills called for better representation of women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds at their agencies.
Suki Thompson, co-founder and chair of Oystercatchers, said the intermediary would now also ask agencies for their gender pay gap figures when carrying out pitches.
Oystercatchers will also open up its online platform to any agency – including those not in the Oystercatchers Club – that wants to share diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Thompson said: "The more we share best practice the better it will be. People want ideas. People want to know what they can do."
Earlier this month WPP published its figures, which showed its median – the midpoint in the range – gender pay gap had actually widened since 2017 (up to 14.9% from 14.6%).
Thompson added: "The stats are still appalling. It’s got to get better. It’s right that agencies process this data because it can’t get better if we don’t know what things currently look like."
Companies with 250 or more staff are required to publish their gender pay gap annually under UK law. The gender pay gap is defined as the difference between the hourly earnings of men and women within a business.
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