PRS for Music publishes Gender Pay Gap Report 2019 and 2020

PRS for Music has today published its Gender Pay Gap Report covering data for two consecutive years, 2019 and 2020. Read the full report here.

Key findings from the report show:

• Mean gender pay gap at PRS for Music has reduced from 19.1% in 2019 to 13.8% in 2020. This was largely driven by executive appointments and leavers, most notably the appointment of a female CEO during 2019.
  
  
• PRS for Music hired more women than men in recent years, but a higher proportion have been hired to roles in lower pay bands, resulting in the median gender pay gap increasing from 17.2% in 2019 to 20.8% in 2020.
  
  
• Overall, while there has been some positive improvement in recent years, PRS for Music’s gender pay gap is in favour of men. This is driven by the fact that there are more men in senior positions within the organisation, rather than men being paid more than their direct female peers.

PRS for Music has made progress since its first gender pay gap report in 2017 and is committed to doing more to close the gap and to champion diversity and inclusion at every level of the organisation.

As part of PRS for Music’s diversity and inclusion programme, Celebrating Our Differences, several steps to support the increase of women in senior roles have already been taken, including unconscious bias training for all employees and continuation of the company’s Women’s Network, which meets regularly.

Earlier this year, PRS for Music signed the Keychange gender equality pledge to achieve 50% board representation of women and under-represented genders. With PRS for Music’s support, the Keychange movement, alongside its charity partner, PRS Foundation, has already made a huge impact on the music industry in workforces, board rooms, on stages and more.

PRS for Music has also committed to UK Music’s Ten-Point Plan to help achieve greater diversity within its workforce and continues to work closely with grassroot organisations such as Women in CTRL and Girls I Rate to influence positive change within its membership and across the wider industry.

Work has already started in delivering against these commitments and measuring progress. Newly approved governance changes following the organisations’ AGM in August included maximum terms for Members of the PRS Council, will allow more diversity at senior levels.

Read more about diversity and inclusion at PRS for Music here.

At PRS for Music, we respect and embrace difference and value diverse teams. Just like the members we represent and the music they make, we are multifaceted. Inclusion is one of our core company values, which we use to evaluate performance, and we strive to be a workplace where everyone is treated fairly, regardless of gender, race, sexuality, or any other characteristic. Since our first gender pay gap report for 2017, our business has changed significantly, and will no doubt continue to do so as we manage the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Our gender pay gap figures have shown modest improvement over this period and we have taken several steps to support the increase in women in senior roles, but we must and will do more, to close the gender pay gap and champion diversity and inclusion at every level of our organisation.

The requirement for employers to report their gender pay gap was suspended for 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic. This report therefore includes PRS for Music’s gender pay gap disclosures for both 2019 and 2020.

About PRS for Music

Here for music since 1914, PRS for Music is a world-leading music collective management organisation representing the rights of more than 175,000 talented songwriters, composers and music publishers. Redefining the global standard for music royalties, PRS for Music ensures songwriters and composers are paid whenever their musical compositions and songs are streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed and played in public. 

For 110 years it has grown and protected the rights of the music creator community, paying out royalties with more accuracy, transparency and speed. In 2023, PRS for Music paid out £943.6m in royalties and collected a record £1.08 billion in revenues. prsformusic.com

About PRS Foundation

Since 2000 PRS Foundation has given more than £44 million to over 8,500 new music initiatives. 9 out of 12 Mercury Prize 2022 nominees had received PRS Foundation support (including the winner Little Simz) and the charity has supported BRITS, RPS, AIM and Ivors Award-winners.

PRS Foundation supports outstanding talent from all backgrounds, covering the whole of the UK and all genres, with grantee success stories including Little Simz, Wolf Alice, Dave, Sam Fender, Years & Years, AJ Tracey, Anna Meredith, Yola, Glass Animals, Ezra Collective, Jade Bird, Ghetts, Shiva Feshareki, Sarathy Korwar, Floating Points, Nadine Shah, The Fanatix, Imogen Heap, IDLES, Kae Tempest, Kojey Radical and Emily Burns.

Widely respected as an inclusive, collaborative and proactive funding body, PRS Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity through direct grants to music creators and through support for pioneering organisations, including venues, festivals, promoters and other talent development organisations. PRS Foundation founded the Women Make Music fund, co-founded global gender equality initiative, Keychange and most recently launched the POWER UP initiative to tackle anti-Black racism in music. www.prsfoundation.com