As we close out the year, Windō is publishing its final report, analyzing DEI reporting across 100 companies in four key industries: Finance, Consulting, Law, and Tech.
Overall Observations Across Industries:
Improved Transparency
DEI reporting continues to rise, with a 7% year-on-year increase across 9 DEI metrics. Notably, Disability workforce representation saw a significant 14% increase, while ethnicity pay gap reporting lagged with just a 3% increase.
Black Representation Challenges
Improving Black workforce representation remains a widespread challenge. Year on Year averages declined in Finance, Law, and Tech and remained flat in Consulting.
Progress for Women
Encouragingly, both women in senior leadership and gender pay gap averages improved across all four industries.
Finance
Socio-Economic Background Reporting
Finance lags behind Law and Consulting, with only Barclays and BlackRock currently reporting. HSBC has indicated plans to report in 2025.
Ethnicity Pay Gap
Only 11% of Finance companies report on this metric, compared to 42% in Consulting and 82% in Law. Standard Chartered was the latest to begin reporting in 2024.
Disability Representation
Finance leads the way with an average of 6%, outperforming Consulting (5.7%), Tech (4.1%), and Law (3.8%).
Consulting
Black Representation
Consulting is the most transparent sector, with 63% of firms reporting this metric. Accenture leads the industry with 11.2% of its U.S. workforce from Black heritage.
Female Partners
Deloitte, EY, and PwC have all increased their female partners by 13–14% over the past three years.
Socio-Economic Reporting
Reporting is on the rise. Pioneers KPMG and PwC have been joined by EY and Deloitte, who started reporting in 2024.
Law
Black Representation
Law trails behind with an average of 3.3%, compared to Finance, Consulting, and Tech, all exceeding 7%.
Transparency Leaders
Law firms lead the way in reporting on LGBTQ+ and Disability representation, with 71% of firms disclosing data for both metrics.
Female Partners
Freshfields saw a 38% increase in female partners over three years, while A&O Shearman achieved a 26% increase.
Tech
Transparency Gaps
Tech lags in reporting on LGBTQ+ and Disability workforce representation, with fewer than 1 in 5 firms disclosing data, compared to 71% in Law.
Gender Pay Gap Leadership
Tech outperforms other sectors, with an average gender pay gap of 15.5%, compared to Consulting (17%), Finance (25.2%), and Law (33.3%).
Black Representation Progress
Among firms reporting since 2020, Ebay and Intuit stand out for doubling their Black workforce in the U.S., while Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce have all increased theirs by ~50%.
Conclusion
This year’s report highlights encouraging progress in transparency, gender equality, and Disability representation, while underscoring ongoing challenges in Black representation and socio-economic inclusion still has much further to go. As reporting evolves, Windō remains committed to tracking and amplifying these trends to drive meaningful change.
