Gender pay gap at Universities

  Apr 17, 2018       No Comments   

For the first time ever, Universities have had to require their gender pay gap results as part of the government trying to crack down on this big issue. The data shows what was expected; with all universities apart from 3, paid men more than women. The majority of universities paid men more than women with a pay gap in double figures. Some as high as 37.4% difference.

This came about due to the government stating that all businesses with employees over 250 have to state their gender pay gap. On average in this industry, the gender pay gap came to 18.4%. Compared to the national average of 9.7%%, it is almost double.

What is the gender pay gap?

It is essential that it is not confused with equal pay. This is where men and women are being paid the same amount for the same job being done. However, this has been a legal requirement since 1970. Yet, gender pay gap is the difference between what men and women earn in an organisation or society as a whole.

Why is there gender pay gap?

There are many different types of factors which affect this, whether it being senior roles, full time/part time work, attitudes to maternity leave, discrimination, caring responsibilities and much more. Therefore, all of these factors contributing to the differing pay gap that we are seeing especially in universities.

One reason which causes this is that companies employ more men than women for the senior roles. Each university in the UK reported that there was a higher amount of women in the lower quartile of wages, and a higher proportion of men in the higher quartile. Meaning the pay gap increases dramatically.

How does it compare to other sectors?

Comparing the gender pay gap to other sectors, the educational sector was the 3^rd worst sector. Behind construction and insurance.

It is an increasing difficult problem to solve. However things are being done to try and reduce this issue and one step was to get businesses to acknowledge it and supply the government with statistics.

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