PwC Australia releases FY23 firmwide pay bands to enhance pay transparency

PwC Australia has today released its firmwide pay bands for FY23, including its partner target income band, to enhance transparency on pay for its people.

PwC Australia CEO Tom Seymour shared the new pay bands by grade for each of its three businesses, Assurance, Consulting and Financial Advisory, as well as for non-client facing staff on a firmwide webcast today. This is in addition to the firm’s earlier announcement on the launch of its Total Reward strategy, to be more transparent on how bonuses are determined and also extended eligibility to cover more people.

Today’s announcement is part of PwC Australia’s significant investment in enhancing the benefits for its people. On top of enhanced fixed and variable pay, the firm has also created innovative development opportunities, as well as boosted benefits for wellness and lifestyle, flexibility, overseas work opportunities and a deals and discount platform.

PwC Australia’s new pay bands, based on industry data, will inform fixed pay outcomes for the firm’s employees in this year’s annual review process which runs from April to September, with outcomes for individuals effective 1 July 2022. Where each PwC employee’s pay will sit relative to the new pay band for their grade and business will depend on their performance, skills, experience, geography and responsibilities. All PwC staff will also be able to estimate their bonus through the ‘Incentive Estimator’.

As part of enhancing transparency on pay, PwC Australia has also released its current year partner ‘target income’. Partners’ target income starts at $340,000 at the entry point. At the top end is the target income at $3,675,000. Partner target income is reviewed annually at year-end.

Mr Seymour said, “Today’s release of information leads the market on transparency and is in direct response to our people asking us to be more open on our approach to pay.

“We’re sharing our FY23 firmwide pay bands, based on industry data, and providing our people with transparency on how their fixed and variable pay is determined. This will help our people to understand where they sit now relative to these bands and what their pay trajectory is in the future, helping them to see the full range of possibilities throughout their career.

“Of course, also revealing what our partners can earn is an important part of being open and transparent which is why the firm has decided to release this key information both to our people and to the market.

“PwC prides itself on recruiting and retaining the best talent. Our move toward open and transparent pay bands recognises the commitment to our people - and in this competitive jobs market, we know transparency is key to attracting top talent and improving trust, morale and engagement.

“We are also investing in our graduates by positioning our pay at the upper end of the market starting at $69,000 to ensure we attract the best talent.

“We will update our pay bands annually based on the most current market data to ensure we stay competitive in what continues to be a hot market for talent across the board,” he said.

Catherine Walsh, PwC Australia Head of People and Culture said, “Our new pay bands for each grade in each business have been set against the latest external market data for 55 professional services firms and 1,000 other organisations that are more relevant to our firm and the business we are today.

“We know our people value both fixed and variable pay so we have also extended eligibility for bonuses to all of our people and launched an ‘Incentive Estimator’ so they can determine in a band what their bonus is likely to be.

“Variable pay is an important way we recognise and reward our people for outstanding performance and impact during the year.

“Our Incentive Estimator and new pay bands will provide our leaders and our people with a base level of consistency in conversations about pay in our annual review progress and will enable us to provide more clarity more often.”

There are some variations across the businesses, given differing skills and across some geographies. There are also overlaps between grades.

“The overlaps between grades are a result of varying needs of each business for particular capabilities, varying levels of experience, competency and responsibility within the same grades, and differences according to location which take into account cost of living and supply and demand of talent in local markets,” Mr Seymour said.

“We want to have competitive starting salaries at all grades and for that to concertina up effectively as our people develop experience in their roles, build out their skill sets and capabilities and take on new and exciting challenges. Our new pay bands are deliberately broad to give our businesses the ability to flex up in response to market changes.

“In sharing our new pay bands publicly we hope to continue to demonstrate our commitment to transparency and to attracting and retaining the best people in the market by ensuring our reward strategy is the best in the industry.”

Notes:

• Fixed pay means total annual salary including superannuation contributions. This is also referred to as ‘Total Remuneration’.
• Variable pay means annual bonus payment based on individual performance, and tied to firm and business performance. This is calculated as a percentage of Total Remuneration.
• Graduates are covered under the Associate pay bands.
• Our employee pay bands relate to FY23, except in the case of the partner target income which is for FY22 as this will not be reviewed until year end.