Gender Pay Gap Report 2018

The University has published its 2018 Gender Pay Gap Report. This is the second mandatory gender pay gap report that the University has published in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.

The 2018 report shows that there has been some progress towards closing the University’s pay gap, but there is still a considerable way to go. 

The median gender pay gap has reduced by 1.3%, from 15.0% in 2017 to 13.7% in 2018. The mean gender pay gap has increased by 0.1%, from 19.6% in 2017 to 19.7% in 2018. This increase is the result of a recent clarification by the NHS about the treatment of a certain payment type for clinical staff for the purposes of gender pay gap reporting. Had the University included these payments in the 2017 calculations, the mean pay gap would have been 19.9%, and so would have reduced by 0.2% this year.

The main cause of the University’s gender pay gap is unequal representation of men and women at different points on the pay scale: there are more men than women in senior positions in the University and this causes the average hourly pay of men to be higher than the average hourly pay of women. 

The University is therefore working hard on a number of initiatives to improve career development and progression for women. These include:

• Support for inclusive leadership. Managers and leaders have a vital role to play in closing the gender pay gap. As part of the range of support available to managers, a new leadership programme with a strong emphasis on inclusivity is being launched later this year. It will be available in tailored versions to both professional services staff and academic staff.
   
• Targeted career development support. A new programme to support career progression, with mentoring and personalised support, is being launched in 2019. This is particularly aimed at women professional services staff. Academic career pathways are also being reviewed as part of work on the University’s People Strategy.
   
• Enhancing pay progression opportunities. A new pay progression scheme is being developed for professional services staff with the aim of ensuring opportunities for pay progression are equitably available to both women and men and across all staff groups, grades and areas of work. Academic pay progression is included in the review of academic career pathways mentioned above.

The University is committed to accelerating the progress being made to close the gender pay gap. More information on the initiatives outlined above, and other equality and inclusion work, can be found at www.inclusivecambridge.admin.cam.ac.uk