Two young people’s charities have been included in a list of 75 UK employers championing social mobility in the workplace.
The new 2025 Social Mobility Employer Index ranked the EY Foundation, which works to address employment barriers faced by young people from low-income backgrounds, 49th in the list. Meanwhile, children's food and education charity Magic Breakfast was in 74th place.
Overall, nine charities submitted entries to be listed on the index, which was free for voluntary organisations and small employers (49 employees or fewer) to take part in.
For the second year running, law firm Browne Jacobson topped the rankings, with water supplier Severn Trent and legal company Linklaters in second and third place, respectively.
The index has been run annually since 2017 by UK charity the Social Mobility Foundation and works as a benchmarking and assessment tool for employers.
'More employers need to up their game'
Sarah Atkinson, chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation, congratulated all 75 employers in the index.
“They’re leaders in creating workplaces where everyone can thrive, leading to more representative, innovative, successful organisations,” she said.
“Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Too many young people are being held back from reaching their potential because of their background. That’s unfair for them, and in a country facing a skills shortage, it’s bad for all of us.
“We need more employers to step up their game, enter the index, and take action to improve social mobility.
“And we need the government to follow the lead of this year’s forward-thinking entrants and make all large employers report socioeconomic data for their workforces.”
Measuring class pay gaps
Employers who entered the index were given feedback on how to develop meaningful improvements to access, progression, and internal culture for staff from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
This year, 74% of the 140 entrants overall collected socioeconomic background data for their workforce.
Three-quarters of entrants targeted careers outreach to schools with lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Additionally, 82% of entrants that offered apprenticeships paid the real living wage or higher.
The 2025 index also included 10 more organisations that measure their class pay gap than the previous year.
A total of 60 entrants, 43%, stated that they either already measure their class pay gaps or were planning to measure them next year.
