Reading reports 19.58% gender gap

Thursday, 22 March 2018

A new University of Reading report published as part of the government’s mandatory gender pay gap reporting initiative has revealed that the gender pay gap at the University is 19.58%. This is the difference in the average earnings of men and women across all jobs and grades.

The gender pay gap, in part, reflects the uneven distribution of men and women throughout the pay structure; with women being over-represented amongst lower-graded roles such as cleaning, catering and clerical roles and men being over-represented amongst the higher grades in professorial and senior management roles.

All organisations with 250 or more employees are required to report key statistics on their gender pay gap on an annual basis. For public sector organisations, including universities, the deadline for publishing this information is 30 March 2018.

The University recognises that reporting gender pay gap data and analysing the reasons for the gap is a valuable exercise. We promote the fair treatment of all employees in our reward and recognition arrangements and are committed to understanding and addressing any significant factors contributing to the gender pay gap.

For the Gender Pay Gap report, nearly 4,000 employees across all pay ranges were included in the calculations.

The University has set institutional targets to address the gender imbalance in senior roles. By 2020, we aim to:

have at least 30% women in all key University committees and boards, including the University Executive Board (UEB)
maintain at least 45% of either gender in senior leadership roles
improve the gender balance amongst the professoriate, with at least 40% female professors

We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion as demonstrated by our participation in a number of charter marks e.g. Athena SWAN, which focuses on the advancement of women’s careers across higher education. Changes to the promotion procedures for academic staff have already resulted in more applications and a stronger success rate among female colleagues. Of the 28 academic promotions in 2016-17, 14 female colleagues were promoted, compared with only five the previous year.

Professor Parveen Yaqoob and Professor Dominik Zaum have recently been appointed to the University Executive Board in a job-share role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation.

We will implement, or have already implemented, a range of initiatives and policies to address the gender pay gap such as enabling progression through mentoring and the AURORA programme; supporting flexible working arrangements; raising awareness of diversity issues through staff networks and Diversity Champions at board level.

The full Gender Pay Gap report is available on our website.