UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has published its 2021 gender pay gap report.
This is the third annual report, which highlights the percentage difference between average hourly earnings for men and women across the organisation.
Data shows that the mean gender pay gap across UKRI has slightly decreased by 0.1 percentage points:
- 10.3% in 2020
- 10.2% in 2021.
The median pay gap, which had reduced 3% between 2019 and 2020, increased by 1.6 percentage points over the last year:
- 10.7% in 2020
- 12.3% in 2021.
The report also disaggregates the gender pay gap data by research council.
Behind the data
Some progress has been made since UKRI began publishing data. But there is clearly much more work to do to understand what drives the gender pay gap and deliver effective actions to address it.
UKRI has a higher representation of men in the more senior grades, but since 2020 the number of women in these grades has increased.
The data also reveal a significant contrast between those under and over 40 which we are taking steps to explore:
- mean by age: 0.8% under 40, 14.9% over 40
- median by age: 3.7% under 40, 15.3% over 40.
New data set: ethnicity pay gap
For the first time, UKRI has published its ethnicity pay gap.
This details the difference in average pay of all ethnic minority employees compared to the average pay of all white employees, regardless of the level or type of work carried out.
This is an important first step, and we recognise only a first step, to understanding ethnic pay inequality and under-representation in our workforce and taking action to tackle it:
- mean ethnicity pay gap: 5.2%
- median ethnicity pay gap: 3.6%.
Improving equality
UKRI’s Chief Executive, Ottoline Leyser said:
UKRI strives to be an inclusive place to work where everyone can thrive.
The data and analysis in this report are key to understanding why we currently fall short of our goals.
They will form an essential annual milestone in our action plan to drive change, informing how we can improve opportunity for all across our organisation.
Next steps
In 2022, we will publish our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, which aims to catalyse change across the sector, including with ourselves.
It will outline UKRI’s workforce EDI plan and review of workforce demographic data.
The data from the report will also form part of our annual cycle of reporting to influence our EDI action plans.