Big Four Pay Inequity Gels with Charge of ‘Crap’ Bias Training

The departure of KPMG’s U.K. boss this month after dismissing unconscious bias training as “complete crap” cast a spotlight on the dismal record for racial and gender equality at his firm and at his main competitors.

Unconscious or not, the numbers speak to bias issues throughout the Big Four in the U.K. Fewer than 1% of their partners are black and less than a quarter are female. All four reported pay gaps between their white and ethnic-minority employees of well over 30%, compared to the U.K. average gap of 2.3% in 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics.

“It’s ...