Gender pay gap report published
30 Mar 2021
Our gender pay gap report for 2020 is now available
Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that we have published our fourth annual Gender Pay Gap report (GPG) which measures differences between the average (mean and median) earnings of men and women who work at our University. This is an important component of our commitment to progress equality, diversity and inclusion.
The median GPG has remained the same at 11.8% whilst the mean has remained largely static at 17.2%, compared to 17% in 2019. We benchmark our GPG with other UK universities and the 2019 data shows that our University has one of the narrowest GPGs amongst the research-intensive Russell Group universities – third on the mean GPG and sixth on the median GPG.
The main factor contributing to our mean and median GPG is the under-representation of women in senior roles and their over-representation in the lowest paid roles, not as a result of men and women being paid differently for work of equal value.
This is reinforced by the outcomes of the University’s 2019 Equal Pay Audit which reveals that there are no significant pay gaps (i.e. 5% or more) by gender, ethnicity or disability for staff paid within each of grades 1 – 8 on our University’s pay scale.
The proportion of women among those occupying roles in the highest paid quartile has also remained largely static at 40.8%, compared to 40.3% in 2019. This is against the backdrop of our target to increase the proportion of women who are Senior Lecturers, Readers and Professors across all Faculties until they are representative of the pool of women at Lecturer level. We have made some progress: currently women occupy 32% of senior academic roles against our 47% target.
We have made progress tackling bonus pay gaps. Only a small proportion of our staff receive bonus payments: 2.1% of men and 1.3% of women, but the mean bonus pay gap for 2020 has reduced to 50.8%, down from 64% in 2019. Likewise, the median bonus pay gap has reduced to 51.6% from 83.2% in 2019. These are the smallest bonus pay gaps since the introduction of mandatory pay gap reporting.
The bonus GPGs are largely due to the payment of Clinical Excellence Awards (CEAs). We are committed to working with partner NHS Trusts to determine what further actions the University can take to ensure women are actively supported and encouraged to apply for CEAs.
Measures put in place to reduce the gender pay gap take time to have an impact. The actions we developed in response to the 2019 report, will not have had a full effect at the time of the 2020 census date. We continue to monitor progress and adjust our actions designed to eradicate the gender pay gap.
As part of this concerted effort an equality impact assessment is underway to examine the potential impact of COVID-19 on the career progression of women. We are reviewing our flexible working policy and developing an approach to hybrid working, taking into account feedback from colleagues who have shared their experiences of working during lockdown. We continue to support our staff networks, staff training, Living Wage Foundation accreditation, our membership of the Disability Forum, delivery of our Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter accredited action plans and raising and maintaining awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Eradicating the gender pay gap is an ambitious target which will take time to achieve. We must continue to challenge ourselves, and each other, to seek out and develop opportunities to reach our goal.
Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility
Karen Heaton, Director of Human Resources