Global charity Wellcome Trust has reported a 30% mean gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay as at 5 April 2017.
The organisation has reported its gender pay gap data in line with the government’s gender pay gap reporting regulations and ahead of the private sector and charity submission deadline of 4 April 2018.
The gender pay gap reporting regulations require organisations with 250 or more employees to publish the difference between both the mean and median hourly rate of pay for male and female full-time employees; the difference between both the mean bonus pay and median bonus pay for male and female employees; the proportions of male and female employees who were awarded bonus pay; and the proportions of male and female full-time employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands.
Wellcome Trust’s median gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay is 20.8% as at 5 April 2017.
Its mean gender pay gap for bonuses paid in the year to 5 April 2017 is 78.8%, and the median gender pay gap for bonus pay is 22.6%. Over this period, 75% of female employees received a bonus payment compared to 74.6% of male employees. In total, approximately 64% of the charity’s workforce are women.
Under half (47.8%) of employees in the highest pay quartile at the Wellcome Trust are women, compared to 61.7% in the second quartile, 75.8% in the third quartile and 69.9% in the lowest pay quartile.
The Wellcome Trust attributes its gender pay gap to the disproportionate balance of men and women at different levels of the organisation, as the majority of its senior, higher-paid roles are fulfilled by male employees. This also influences the Wellcome Trust’s gender pay gap for bonuses, as these are typically awarded as a percentage of annual salary.
The charity states that its mean gender pay gap figure for bonus pay is directly linked to the long-term incentive plan that is used for its investments team. During 2017, the three most senior male employees from the investments team were awarded significant bonuses through the long-term incentive plan, which affected the final data. The mean gender pay gap for bonuses, excluding the investments team, is 6.5%, and the median gender bonus pay gap is 19.7%.
To address its gender pay gap, the Wellcome Trust plans to improve its diversity data collection in order to better inform and target new initiatives. In 2018, the charity will provide training for all staff to mitigate bias, and the Wellcome Trust will also introduce fairer ways to support the recruitment, progression and retention of female employees at senior leadership levels. The organisation’s director has additionally committed to having a gender-balanced executive leadership team by 2023.
The charity has a collective aim to create an organisational culture where employees are motivated and equipped to reduce bias at work, and to work towards having a balanced distribution of men and women throughout the business.
Jeremy Farrar, director at the Wellcome Trust, said: “As we learn more about the specific barriers that disadvantage certain groups of people from progressing in our workplace, we will remove them. [The] gender pay gap will be one way of measuring our progress, and we welcome the opportunity to be open and honest about where we are by publishing our data alongside other organisations based in the UK.
“Embedding diversity and inclusion in Wellcome’s culture will give us access to a wider range of voices, helping us to make better decisions. In the longer term, it will also strengthen a culture of international research in which everyone feels able to contribute their ideas, the great ideas we need to improve health.”
