Still a way to go to close university gender pay gap - Helen Corden

The gender pay gap is reducing slowly among universities in the UK, however, the University and College Union has predicted that the academic gender pay gap will take 40 years to close, with imbalance of men and women in different grades, “insourcing” and part-time working among main causes of the pay differences.

According to data provided by 156 universities and analysed by Pinsent Masons, the average median pay gap between male and female employees working for these universities was 11.3 per cent in 2022-23 – a reduction of just 0.4 per cent from 2021-22.

Unlike other sectors, female employees received more bonus payments than male employees in universities on average, with a median bonus gap of around 1.4 per cent in favour of women in 2022-23. In addition, a number of universities and colleges have reported no median hourly pay gap between male and female employees.

The current gap is largely attributable to a general imbalance of men and women in different grades, with more males still occupying the higher paid grades and more women in lower grades.

Helen Corden, Partner and UK Head of Employment & Reward at Pinsent Masons

The imbalance in grading structure is exacerbated by the impact of there no longer being a mandatory age for retirement within most universities. This has resulted in longer retention of male academics with significantly higher salaries, so female staff might not be occupying the senior roles as quickly as previously expected.

The higher number of women in part-time employment is another contributing factor to the pay gap, as fewer part time colleagues are in higher paid roles, but at some universities as high as 75 per cent of all part-time roles are held by women.

Universities have also attributed the gender pay gap to the continuing traditional gendered roles within the business, with more women, for example, occupying cleaning roles and more men occupying roles such as security. The gender pay gap for each university is also said to be directly impacted by whether the university outsources these services or whether these roles are included in gender pay gap figures for the university.

Universities have taken different initiatives to help close the gender pay gap, with a particular focus on improving the gender balance across all levels of roles within the organisation. Many are doing so by identifying existing imbalances and undertaking recruitment measures such as increasing the pool of female candidates or tracking the gender profile of applicants and appointments. Other approaches include implementing dynamic working arrangements to assist people in working more flexibly to blend work and home life more effectively.

The average median pay gap between male and female employees was 11.3 per cent in 2022-23 (Picture: stock.adobe.com)

To address the imbalance of men and women in grading structure, several universities have set targets to increase the number of women professors in academia. For example, the University of Bristol has set the objective of increasing the number of women professors to 50 per cent by 2030.

Several universities are focusing on ensuring a more transparent promotion process to allow for achieving an equal gender split in the higher pay quartiles. Some efforts include running promotion workshops, training staff on unconscious bias, and opening up information about career progression.

Helen Corden, Partner and UK Head of Employment & Reward at Pinsent Masons