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Gender pay gap in academia will take 40 years to close

Data show that as seniority and salary increases in universities, the percentage of women staff members decreases.
Data show that as seniority and salary increases in universities, the percentage of women staff members decreases. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Closing the academic gender pay gap will take 40 years at the current pace, according to research published by the University and College Union.

The trade union says that in 2015–16, UK universities had a 12% overall gender pay gap for academic staff [pdf]. It has been slowly dropping in recent years, from 12.6% in 2013–14, to 12.3% in 2014–15.

Drawing on 2015–16 data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the union attributes the gap to pay disparities at the top levels of staff, combined with the under-representation of women in senior posts, particularly among professors and senior academics.

While women dominate at the early-career levels of research and teaching assistant, as seniority and salary increases the percentage of women staff members decreases. At professor level, less than one quarter of staff are women.

In 2015–16, universities used a 51-point pay spine ranging from £14,323 to £58,754. This had proportionately more women than men up to point 43, but that situation reversed from point 44 onwards. At the highest points, almost two-thirds (63%) of academic staff were men while just 37% were women.

The report also highlights disparities between types of institution. The largest gender pay gap is for staff employed by the 24 research-intensive Russell Group universities, where there is an average deficit of £8,882 for each female employee each year, rising to £18,897 at the top managerial levels. This compares with an average of £5,140 at newer universities, although the difference can be partly explained by the lower proportion of staff at senior professor level at post-1992 institutions.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt called upon universities to analyse their gender pay gaps by carrying out equal pay audits. “We are now submitting local equal pay audits at universities and want institutions to analyse and address their gender pay gaps,” she said.

Employers with more than 250 staff are obliged by law to publish six key indicators of gender pay by April 2018 and annually thereafter. UCU is asking universities to extend the minimum reporting requirements to a “detailed and meaningful” equal pay review.

Responding to the report, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association said that the higher education sector “takes equality seriously and action to support women’s careers has resulted in the sector pay gap falling more quickly than the rest of the economy over the past five years”. All universities use job evaluation to ensure equal pay for work of equal value, it said.

However UCEA added that institutions recognise that there is “more work to do”, particularly around actions to advance women’s career progression. Universities are also collaborating with trade unions on a sector-wide examination of gender pay data that resulted in a report in September 2016 and ongoing joint work, it said.

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