Mandatory gender pay gap reporting has been a requirement for many higher education providers since 2017. This report examines the data and the subsequent progress made during this time.
The report ranks higher education providers by a number of metrics relating to the gender pay gap. Rankings can be a blunt tool, and the rankings in the report should be considered alongside each other, as they view progress through a number of different lenses. While it is tempting to want to divide institutions into gender pay gap heroes and villains, the below tables demonstrate that the gender pay gap picture is complex. The full report (link at the bottom of this page) delves into the nuances behind the tables in detail.
You can view the full rankings in the tables below. The first table ranks institutions by their median and mean pay gap in 2022, the latest year for which data are available. The second ranks institutions by how their gender pay gap has changed between 2017 and 2022. You can reorder the tables by each column by pressing the three bars at the top of the column; pressing the button again will reverse the order.
The report goes beyond the numbers, exploring the structural barriers to pay equity, including employment structures, bonus culture, and intersectionality, offering a nuanced understanding of the challenges and progress within higher education.
The full report makes for very interesting reading and many of the comments are insightful, showing the importance of context, detail, regulations, norms, conventions and size of sample.
It is clear that the situation is far from fair and white male academics are the current beneficiaries but equality of opportunity is moving in the right direction.
For me, the snakes and ladders style representation of why things are as they are, was especially helpful.
The role of citations and H and M factors should be the first focus for reforms and are currently amajor impediment to “fair” recruitment.
The recommendations for action should be widely supported so that the pace of progress is properly boosted.