At ZS, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We invest in their growth, wellbeing and long term success, while building a workforce that reflects the communities and clients we serve.
Our vision and core values shape how we operate as a global firm of more than 13,000 ZSers. United by a shared goal to improve life and how we live it, our people are central to delivering meaningful impact for clients and communities. Guided by our values—treating people right, doing the right thing and getting it right—we strive to foster an inclusive, high performing culture where diverse perspectives drive stronger outcomes and sustained success.
We work every day to ensure ZS is a place where people feel safe, valued, respected and empowered to thrive. We continually evolve our attraction, retention and progression strategies to strengthen our global team. ZS’s 2025 U.K. Pay Gap Report—our fourth statutory submission, based on an April 2025 snapshot—helps inform these efforts. It provides an opportunity to step back and assess how we are advancing fairness and access to opportunity, while attracting and retaining a representative workforce.
We are proud to have yet again achieved pay equity for roles in the U.K. in 2025. At the same time, we recognize the continued opportunity to close our gender pay gap, particularly by increasing the representation of women in roles and levels with higher market rates of pay—the primary driver of our current gap.
Closing this gap will take time. We remain committed to making steady progress by strengthening the systems, processes and initiatives that support a robust pipeline of women leaders at ZS.
Read more in our 2025 U.K. Pay Gap Report, below.
Understanding pay gap versus pay equity
The gender pay gap and pay equity measure different outcomes. The gender pay gap compares average or median earnings between men and women and is influenced by representation across roles and levels. Pay equity refers to equal pay for equal work.
Though we continue to achieve pay equity every year, including in 2025, we have an opportunity to close the gender pay gap that exists at ZS and in the professional services industry in the U.K. This can be accomplished by increasing the proportion of women in consulting and leadership roles, especially those that carry higher market rates of pay.
Our compensation philosophy
Our compensation philosophy is grounded in rewarding performance, maintaining competitiveness and ensuring fairness.
Our philosophy is:
- Performance-based: We pay for the performance that is expected of ZSers based on their level and job description. We use a consistent competency model as the basis for measuring ZSers’ performance and progression.
- Competitive: We pay above market benchmarks to attract and retain top talent. We review external benchmarks against a relevant peer set to ensure our total compensation package is competitive by role, level and location. Finally, we evaluate turnover data, exit interview data and internal intelligence from our hiring efforts to keep pace with competitors.
- Fair: We promote fairness and consistency by auditing our compensation data, to ensure ZSers receive equal compensation for performing equal work.
Understanding our gap
As of April 5, 2025, women comprise 46% of employees across all roles and levels in our U.K. offices. Our consulting team is predominantly 60% men, while internal enterprise and support roles are predominantly 70% women. The roles within consulting and internal enterprise and support services apply different salary levels and align to different compensation benchmarks. Increasing the representation of women in senior leadership and consulting roles—particularly those associated with higher market rates of pay—will be key to closing the overall gender pay gap.
Additionally, a small number of senior women transitioned out of U.K.-based roles during the year while continuing their careers at ZS in other regions. Movements of this nature, particularly at senior levels, can influence pay gap outcomes in a given year. ZS remains committed to retaining exceptional talent and offers internal mobility for employees to evolve their careers globally and work with different teams and markets.
Bonus eligibility across men and women at ZS is equal. The differences (100% vs 96.9%) are partially due to transfer practices that resulted in bonuses paid outside of the U.K. and excluded from this analysis.
Additionally, given that bonus is a greater portion of total compensation at senior levels, and we have a smaller proportion of women in senior roles in the U.K., this impact is seen in our mean and median bonus gap.
Pay quartiles
% Men
% Women
The highest quartiles (e.g., upper quartile) tend to reflect all our U.K. principal level employees, which is the highest leadership level, who consist primarily of men (75%). Again, as we continue increasing women’s representation across the firm, the gender pay gap reflected in this U.K. analysis will close.
Closing the gap
ZS has not achieved representative gender parity across our various roles and job types. Men are more represented in roles with higher levels of pay, including principal roles, which sit at the top of our organizational hierarchy. However, our historic work and accomplishments regarding pay equity, along with efforts of consistent, structured and skills-based talent strategies, should continue to improve our U.K. gender pay gap results. While ZS has achieved and maintained gender pay equity, the U.K. pay gap analysis highlights the opportunity for ZS to work toward representation that reflects U.K. averages.
By continuing to increase the representation of women in senior leadership and consulting roles across the organization—while still supporting flexibility, mobility and life stage needs—we can make meaningful progress toward closing the gender pay gap averaged across all roles.
We have several initiatives underway to attract, motivate and reward performance, drive growth, support retention, and cultivate an inclusive culture with equal employment opportunities for all, including:
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Strategy and action from committed leadership bodies, including our Inclusion & Belonging Council, Inclusion & Belonging Center of Expertise, Women@ZS Inclusion & Belonging Group and all of HR. Increasing the representation of women in higher paying roles is a strategic, firmwide priority and actively sponsored by firm leadership. Accountability for progress sits across various governing bodies and enterprise functions, including those mentioned. Our continued goal is for our workforce to mirror the talent market in which we work and live, by committing ourselves to the following:
- Ensuring fairness and access to opportunity by limiting operational biases and barriers.
- Attracting and retaining a representative workforce through inclusive practices.
- Enhancing employees’ experiences with benchmarked standards and opportunities.
- Fostering an engaged and empowered culture through committed, inclusive leaders.
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Inclusive benefits. We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support ZSers at different stages of life and enable long term career journeys at ZS. In the U.K., this includes flexible and connected ways of working—an approach ZS has embraced for years, ahead of formal government requirements—alongside robust health, well-being and family benefits. Through our partnership with Carrot, ZS provides comprehensive fertility, family planning and hormonal health offerings (including for menopause), with a total lifetime benefit of £60,000. Unlike many employers, where fertility treatments such as IVF are often paid fully out of pocket, our program does not require medical necessity and is available regardless of enrollment in a ZS medical plan. Additionally, ZSers in the U.K. have access to private medical care through Aviva, a trusted healthcare provider offering comprehensive medical coverage and dedicated menopause services. We regularly review our benefits to ensure they remain competitive, inclusive and responsive to the evolving needs of our people.
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Pay equity assessments. ZS conducts an annual pay equity and compensation review that considers several factors—including roles, locations, levels and more—to determine equal pay for equal work. Once we accounted for legitimate differences in pay (such as role, job level and prior experience) in our 2025 review, the audit results showed that there are no statistically significant differences in pay based on gender at ZS. We continue working with external partners annually to conduct this exercise and audit pay practices globally.
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Pipeline development. We support continuous learning and career growth through:
- Performance advising: All junior associates are paired with a performance advisor upon joining the firm, and ZS leaders receive professional development coaching.
- Mentorship: ZSers are encouraged to build informal mentoring relationships with peers and leaders across the firm.
- Promotions and leadership paths: Clear promotion pathways and access to leadership opportunities support progression at every level.
- New hire integration: All new hires participate in our global onboarding and development program.
- Milestone training programs: As ZSers grow within the firm, these trainings help them build skills, confidence and influence.
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Structured and skills-based hiring. Annually, we audit our processes to ensure best practices, objectivity and consistency in hiring. We also require all ZSers involved in the hiring process to complete compliance training to further reduce the effects of personal bias when evaluating and rewarding talent.
These and many other efforts will help close the representation gap across levels and, with it, the pay gap at ZS.
Declaration
I confirm that the data reported by ZS is accurate.
Signed:
Oriana Vogel
Chief People Officer