Today (25 March 2026) PPL provides an update on its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy and publishes its gender and ethnicity pay gap report for 2025. On 5 April 2025, the company had 251 full time employees.
The 2025 data shows continued progress in gender diversity, with female representation increasing to 41.4% (2024: 40%). The company has a target of 50/50 across the workforce by 2027.
The total percentage of white employees relative to Asian, Black and Mixed ethnic group employees is 67.1% to 32.9%, a slight shift from the 70/30 percentage split in 2024. PPL is targeting a 65/35 workforce split by 2027, representative of the 2021 census data for London and the South East, where most of PPL’s employees live. The organisation is ahead of the wider music sector, where the average total of employees from ethnically diverse communities is 25.2%, as reported in the UK Music Diversity Report 2024.
Given the relatively small size of the organisation, changes in just a few roles, including promotions, departures and extended leaves of absence on the 5 April 2025, can have a significant impact on the data.
Gender Pay Gap
The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women, as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings. It is a measure across all roles within a business. This number is a single snapshot of everyone employed by PPL on 5 April 2025.
In 2025, PPL recorded a mean gender pay gap of 8% (2024: 9.7%). When the CEO’s pay was excluded, the mean pay gap was 3.5% (2024: 5%). The senior leadership team (Executive Leadership Team and Heads of Department) is slightly above gender parity in favour of women, which has helped reduce the mean pay gap this year.
The median gender pay gap – the difference between the median hourly earnings of men and women, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings – for 2025 is 22.9% (2024: 18.7%). As in 2024, PPL recorded a higher number of men in middle management roles than women. Women are also overly represented in roles in the lower half of the organisation. This helps explain the increase in the median and decrease in the mean figures, because manager roles are more numerous, but the number of female managers has only increased slightly.
Moreover, PPL has a sizable Technology team, which skews heavily towards men (74%). As a result, it disproportionately drives up the mean gender pay gap across the organisation. This situation is not unique to PPL; according to the British Chartered Institute for IT, women make up just 21% of IT specialists in the UK. This underlines the importance of increasing female representation in higher-paid Technology roles as part of the company’s ongoing EDI strategy.
When Technology employees are excluded from the calculation, the mean gender pay gap for PPL reduces markedly to just 1.1%.
Ethnicity Pay Gap
Every year since 2019, PPL has voluntarily reported its ethnicity pay gap data, in line with UK Music’s Ten-Point Plan.
Following new government guidance, PPL has evolved its external reporting, which is now broken down into different ethnic groups to provide the greatest amount of granularity possible. For 2025, PPL’s pay gap statistics for Asian, Black and Mixed ethnic group staff are calculated from 34, 30 and 13 employees, respectively.
Between 2024 and 2025, the mean ethnicity pay gap – the percentage difference between the average hourly earnings of white employees and employees from ethnic minority backgrounds – was 32.9% in favour of white employees (2024: 27.1%). It remained broadly stable for Asian staff at 28.4% (2024: 28.5%) and Black staff at 29.5% (2024: 28.3%), while increasing more significantly for Mixed ethnic group staff at 35.4% (2024: 18.9%).
The median ethnicity pay gap – the percentage difference between the median hourly earnings of white employees and employees from Asian, Black and Mixed ethnic groups – was 27.2% (2024: 23.7%), rising for Asian staff to 26.9% (2024: 24.2%) and Black staff to 29.5% (2024: 24.9%), with a steeper increase for Mixed ethnic group staff to 27.4% (2024: 10.9%). These changes continue to be influenced by the distribution of roles across the organisation, with an overrepresentation of ethnically diverse employees in roles which are lower paid in comparison to Head of Department and Executive positions.
Bonus Pay Gap Gaps
PPL offers a bonus scheme which is based on company and individual performance. It is subject to certain eligibility criteria – for example, an employee’s start date or if they are on an extended leave of absence.
The proportion of male and female employees who received a bonus for work in 2024 (paid in March 2025) was 91.2% and 85.6% respectively, both increasing year on year. PPL’s mean and median gender bonus gap increased to 37.3% (2024: 13.9%) and 28.6% (2024: 15.8%) respectively.
The company’s mean ethnicity bonus gap rose to 71.3% in favour of white employees, compared to 66.9% in 2024. Its median ethnicity bonus gap is now 43.6.% in favour of white employees, up from 37.1% in 2024.
PPL has a long-term commitment to EDI and remains committed to delivering on its strategy and continuing to build an inclusive and supportive workplace. A key focus for the year ahead is reviewing our recruitment and onboarding processes end-to-end, with EDI embedded as a key lens to help ensure fair and inclusive access to opportunities across the organisation.
Read PPL’s latest Equity, Sustainability & Community Report, which includes a full breakdown of our gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting, here.
