Back to Fractional EDI Salary Benchmarking Tool

What should you pay an EDI lead?

Build a competitive salary range based on your organisation's profile — then see the full first-year cost of employment before you post the job.

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Tell us about your organisation

Four questions. Your salary range is calculated from the combination of all four.

Seniority level of the role
Primary sector
Organisation size (headcount)
Primary location

Your salary benchmark

Based on current UK EDI market rates for your profile.

Competitive salary range
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What this range is based on

  • ·Published gender pay gap reports and voluntary ethnicity pay gap disclosures from UK organisations
  • ·UK HR industry salary surveys (CIPD, Radford, Willis Towers Watson) for People & HR functions
  • ·Live EDI role postings on LinkedIn, Indeed, and specialist HR job boards — cross-referenced against stated band and scope
  • ·The Equal Group's direct experience placing and scoping senior EDI roles across sectors

Ranges reflect base salary only and should be reviewed at least annually against market conditions. Figures are indicative — final salary should be set based on candidate profile and internal equity.

Before you post the job

The salary is only part of what a permanent hire costs. Here is the full picture for Year 1.

Salary (mid-point of range)
—
Base salary —
Employer's National Insurance (13.8% above £9,100) —
Employer pension contribution (5%) —
Recruitment fee (17.5% of salary) —
Time-to-hire gap cost (4 months at day rate equivalent) —
Onboarding and ramp-up (equipment, induction, productivity lag) —
Estimated first-year total cost

These figures do not include the cost of the role remaining unfilled if the hire doesn't work out — which happens in approximately 1 in 3 senior EDI appointments within 18 months, according to HR industry data. A second recruitment cycle adds a further £15–25k to the total.

Additional context before you decide

This is not a sales pitch — it is the same information a CFO would want before approving either option.

Permanent hire

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estimated first-year total cost
  • 3–6 month recruitment timeline
  • Employer's NI, pension, benefits
  • Recruitment fee (typically 15–20%)
  • Notice period if relationship fails
  • Risk of unsupported hire leaving within 18 months

Fractional EDI lead

From £16,200
per year at 2 days/month (£675/day)
  • Start within weeks, not months
  • No employer's NI, pension, or benefits
  • No recruitment fee
  • No notice period — scale up or down as needed
  • Senior expertise embedded from day one

Important framing: fractional EDI and a permanent hire are not mutually exclusive. Many organisations use fractional EDI to build the data, infrastructure, and leadership buy-in that makes a future permanent hire viable — significantly reducing the risk of the costly cycle of hire, underperformance, and departure.

Get your personalised salary report

We'll email you a PDF summary with your salary range, the full cost breakdown, and the fractional EDI comparison — ready to share with a CFO or board.

Send me the report

Delivered to your work inbox. No newsletter subscription — just the report.
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