SHW gender pay gap 2023
Published: 11 October 2023
SHW Athena Swan champion Julie Langan Martin feeds back on the current gender pay gap in our school and how we plan to address the issues raised
As part of our Athena Swan work, we provide information on the SHW gender pay gap annually. We aim to use this information to inform our action planning to close the gap.
What is the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference in the average pay of men and women in an organisation, regardless of the nature or level of their work. It highlights the different number of men and women across all roles. It is different from an equal pay comparison, which involves a direct comparison of two people or groups of people carrying out the same type of work or work of equal value.
How do we track this?
The UofG People and Organisational Development team provides information about the gender pay gap across all SHW staff, calculated as the difference in mean or median salary. Data are based on full-time equivalent salary. Market supplement payments are not included. A positive value for the gender pay gap means that men’s earnings are higher than women’s. A negative value for the gender pay gap means that women’s earnings are higher than men’s.
Gender pay gap results 2023
Results calculated in August 2023 indicated that the mean SHW gender pay gap was 18.4% (similar to last year’s mean of 19.7%). The median pay gap was 5.7% (the same as last year). The large discrepancy between the mean and median gaps was again driven by the disproportionate number of female staff in lower grades (including some professional services roles), with 15 of the 20 lowest paid staff being women. Among the 20 highest paid staff, 10 were women. The overall mean gender pay gap for the University as a whole is 12.6% (down from 14.7% in 2020).
Data stratified by grade (grades 2-9 inclusive with MRC grades converted to UofG equivalents) indicated that the largest mean gap was evident for Grade 5 (6.0%); this has been the case for the past two years. The mean gaps were smaller for the other grades, ranging from to -3.2% (in favour of women at Grade 4) to 5.0% at Grade 8.
At professorial level (excluding clinical staff) the overall mean gap was 16.3%, larger than last year’s gap of 13.8%. Like last year, the data for the four professorial zones indicated that the gap was driven by large differences within zone 2 (15.8%). Differences within zones 1 and 4 were smaller, at 7.8% and 1.0% respectively. It should be noted that these data are based on small numbers of staff in each zone.
The overall mean gap for clinical staff was 18.4%, lower than last year’s gap of 21.0%. Within the separate clinical grades, the mean gaps were: Clinical Academic 11.0% and Clinical Consultant 8.2%.
What happens next?
Work continues in collaboration between the Athena Swan Career Progression and Professional Services Staff working groups to address patterns of grading and career progression among professional services staff, especially those in lower grades. There is an on-going need for the Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team to look in more detail at the gaps among professorial and clinical staff, to understand what is driving these.
Julie Langan Martin
SHW Athena Swan champion
UofG equal pay and equality pay gap reporting
First published: 11 October 2023
