Workplace equality champion People Like Us (PLU) is inviting brands to join forces on its mission to accelerate “meaningful progress” on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The award-winning not-for-profit, which champions ethnically diverse talent across the UK’s marketing, media, communications and creative sectors, is looking for partners to oppose workplace inequality and join the fight to make ethnicity pay gap reporting mandatory.
Founding partners include creative agency Worth Your While, market research firm Censuswide and creative comms firm PrettyGreen.
People Like Us is offering a series of tailored sponsorship packages, starting at ‘Bronze’ level. At this level, sponsors gain access to People Like Us events across 2025/26, priority placement for job adverts on a dedicated jobs board, a bespoke three-month mentorship programme opportunity and confidential support sessions.
‘Silver’ sponsorship includes an enhanced mentorship programme for employees with a bespoke action plan and a consultancy package offering expert guidance tailored to an organisation’s needs.
Ethnicity pay gap: Brands urged to ‘stop paying lip service to diversity’
‘Gold’ sponsors, meanwhile, will receive premium branding sponsorship at all People Like Us events, the opportunity to host a bespoke PLU co-designed event, strategic DEI board participation and additional bespoke elements including campaign development, exclusive job advertising and refined recruitment processes.
“Partnering with People Like Us isn’t just sponsorship, it’s a stand against the alarming regression on DEI and a commitment to real, lasting change,” says co-founder Darain Faraz.
“We’re so humbled by the response from the industry and incredibly proud to have some of the very best as launch partners. These are partners who are not only brilliant at what they do, but who clearly see a bigger role for themselves in this industry, something that goes beyond profit. They’re literally putting their money where their mouth is. This is a partnership with purpose, and we hope it inspires others to step forward and do the same.”
Since launching in 2019, People Like Us has hosted 18 events in partnership with brands including Samsung, LinkedIn, The Financial Times and Sony Music, matching over 300 mentees with 165 mentors in a bid to advance representation and career progression. The not-for-profit’s first international event will take place during next month’s Cannes Lions (17 June) in partnership with The Financial Times.
Pushing for change
In January, People Like Us launched its ‘#NameTheBias’ campaign, calling for urgent systemic reform to tackle the biased hiring practices impacting the earning potential of ethnic minority talent.
Aimed at sparking national conversation about inequalities in pay and job prospects, #NameTheBias launched in Parliament with the backing of cross-party MPs and led to the successful tabling of parliamentary questions on workplace discrimination. The campaign is pushing for a timeline for the introduction of mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting.
The campaign was backed by a survey of more than 2,000 working professionals, in partnership with Censuswide, which found over 70% of ethnic minority workers worry there would be negative consequences from discussing their pay, compared to 51% of white workers. Concerns include being seen as disruptive (30%), facing career limitations (28%), or losing their job (23%).
Partnering with People Like Us isn’t just sponsorship, it’s a stand against the alarming regression on DEI and a commitment to real, lasting change.
Darain Faraz, People Like Us
According to the survey, ethnic minority workers are almost twice as likely to have a pay rise or promotion rescinded due to the current economic climate (40% compared to 23% of white workers).
#NameTheBias built on the success of 2023’s ‘Autocorrected Pay Gap’, which aimed to expose the subtle yet pervasive biases contributing to pay disparities.
“Our work has already sparked vital conversations in Parliament and across the industry,” says PLU co-founder Sheeraz Gulsher.
“Now, with your support, we can extend our impact further, empowering more diverse voices and driving real systemic change. Together, we can redefine success by ensuring that every professional, regardless of their background, is given a fair opportunity to succeed.”
The lack of equity within marketing careers is a persistent issue. Research from Marketing Week’s 2025 Career & Salary Survey uncovered an ethnicity pay gap for full-time workers of 13.3%, up sharply from 8.5% in 2024. This is the highest ethnicity pay gap uncovered by the Career & Salary Survey since 2022.
Speaking to Marketing Week on the publication of the data earlier this year, Faraz described the pay gap figure as a “wake-up call” that progress on diversity, equity and inclusion is slipping away.
“People Like Us was founded to shine a light on these disparities and what this data tells us is that businesses need to stop paying lip service to diversity, equity and inclusion and start making real, measurable change,” he said at the time.
“Pay disparity isn’t an abstract issue – it’s about people’s livelihoods, their financial security and their ability to progress. If businesses truly value talent, they need to ensure that value is reflected in pay, not just rhetoric.”
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