Warwick has second worst gender pay gap in Russell Group

New figures show a median gender pay gap of 23.4% overall, in terms of hourly pay, at the University of Warwick: the second-worst among Russell Group universities.

Data comes from the University’s Gender Pay Gap Report, published in accordance with legal changes made to the Equality Act 2010, requiring employers with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap figures. Figures are accurate as of 31 March 2017.

The median pay gap is defined as “the difference between the mid-point hourly pay rate of men and women.”

When it came to bonus payments by gender, it was reported that 27% of women received a bonus, compared to 22% of men. However, on average, men received bonuses 58.4% higher between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017, with the median difference being 36.3%.

The average pay gap at Warwick was 26.5%. Average and median values are often different because mean values can be affected by extreme values (e.g. an employee paid significantly more relative to others, which would drive up the overall average).

The problem that faces the University of Warwick is not so much a failure to pay equally to staff at the same level, but rather a skew in the gender distribution across levels, with more women in lower paid occupations and more men in higher paid occupations

– Christine Ennew, University of Warwick provost

Times Higher Education reports that across all UK universities, the average pay gap was 15.9%, and the median pay gap was 16.5%. The university with the highest median pay gap was Harper Adams University, with the figures standing at 38.4%.

Overall, Warwick was the 22nd worst.

Christine Ennew, University of Warwick provost, said: “The problem that faces the University of Warwick – and indeed many other organisations – is not so much a failure to pay equally to staff at the same level, but rather a skew in the gender distribution across levels, with more women in lower paid occupations and more men in higher paid occupations.

She continued: “Until this changes, we can continue to pay equally for staff at the same level, but a gender pay gap will persist.”

According to the report, the University has over 6,000 members of staff: around 2,500 academic staff, 3,000 professional services staff and 1,000 commercial services staff. Males make up 46.7% of the total workforce of the University, and females 53.3%.

In the lowest pay quartile, 67% of employees are female, whereas 66% are male in the highest pay quartile.

According to the report, the difference in remuneration for men and women doing the same type of work is not significant for all pay grades apart from the highest one, corresponding to professors and very senior professional staff.

At this pay grade, men earn £101,558 and women earn £95,765 on average.

The University has promised that it will take some key steps to tackle the gender pay gap. These include increasing the number of women in academic subjects where they are under-represented, e.g. science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.

The University also hopes to revise its “academic promotion criteria and processes in order to address any structural barriers to academic promotion”, and target the impact of maternity and paternity leave on gender pay gap figures by supporting working parents returning from such leave to increase their chances of career progression.

In the lowest pay quartile, 67% of employees are female, whereas 66% are male in the highest pay quartile

In his blog, University of Warwick vice-chancellor Stuart Croft commented: “The University of Warwick is totally committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion. The promotion of equality and diversity of both our staff and our student body is core to our thinking and to our actions.”

The Boar also recently conducted an investigation into the gender pay gap at Warwick. The Freedom of Information Request sent to the University revealed that in 2016/17 there were 13 equality adjustments made for females and fewer than five equality adjustments were made for males between the range of £2,000 and £10,000.

We also found that in 2017, for professors or professorial fellows, the wage gap was 8%, meaning that women professors earned £7,756 less per annum on average. When it came to heads of department, females earned almost £15,000, or 16%, less on average in 2017.