Gender Pay Gap 2024
Addressing the gender pay gap at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute
Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace culture where everyone can be themselves and realise their full potential is of great important to us at the CRUK Scotland Institute. Not only does it enable us to conduct cutting edge cancer research, but it encourages new ideas and creativity, which will help us achieve our objectives as an organisation.
In this report you will find:
- A summary of our gender pay gap
- A summary of the challenges, which contribute to our gender pay gap
- Our commitments and actions to narrowing our gender pay gap
What is the gender pay gap at the CRUK Scotland Institute?
To determine the gender pay gap, the Government requires companies to measure the average earnings of all male and female employees, regardless of role and working hours, and show the percentage difference between the two. Table 1 shows that compared to 2023, the mean hourly pay gap between females and males decreased by 2.16% and the median hourly pay gap decreased by 1.33%.
| Gender Pay (£/hour) | Gender Pay Differentials (%) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | Male | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||
| Mean | £18.89 | £20.86 | 9.44 | 11.60 | 11.44 | |
| Median | £19.11 | £20.32 | 5.95 | 7.28 | 12.24 | |
Table 1: Pay Gender from April 2022 to April 2024
*The figures shown here do not include Group Leaders who are employed by the University of Glasgow and who will feature in their Gender Pay Data.
Gender pay gap vs equal pay
Gender pay gap is not the same as equal pay. The latter has been a legal requirement in the UK for nearly 50 years. At the CRUK Scotland Institute, we ensure our people are paid equally for equivalent work, subject to experience and individual contribution, and regardless of gender.
What is behind our gender pay gap?
Our gender pay gap has improved over the past year. The latest data from SRG (STEM recruitment agency) quotes a GPG for women in STEM of 19% from their 2024 survey in collaboration with New Scientist. Our own data from a peer group survey quotes an average mean gender pay gap of 14.8% and median of gender pay gap 8.9%. Our mean difference between female and male salaries decreased to 9.44% and the median to 5.95%. This compares favourably with others in similar sectors and reflects our efforts in both recruitment and internal processes of salary review. We appreciate the need to remain focussed and vigilant on reducing this gap further.
In year 2023/24 we continue the trend of recruiting a high number of females across the institute with 62.17% of new starts female. There was a balance of male and female new starts in research roles. There is still however a disproportionate number of females recruited in lower grades. We acknowledge this imbalance impacts our gender pay gap and we continue our efforts to address this, whilst appreciating societal issues may be a factor influencing who applies for these roles.
In 2024, our workforce composition remained static at 38% male and 62% female. When we rank the pay of our staff into 4 quartiles, we can see that there is a majority of females in the first 3 quartiles which reflects the proportion of males and females across the workforce. It is encouraging that in the upper quartile we are close to parity, with females now representing over 48% of this group.
In 2024, 58% of promotions and 78% of advancements in grades (salary increases above our cost-of-living increase) were female.
It is important to note that our senior research faculty, e.g. Group Leaders, are not reflected in our gender pay gap analysis. This is because they are employed on hybrid contracts and are technically employed by the University of Glasgow.
| M-2022 | F-2022 | M-2023 | F-2023 | M-2024 | F-2024 | |
| Lower Quartile | 30% | 70% | 32% | 68% | 32% | 68% |
| Lower Middle Quartile | 33% | 67% | 29% | 71% | 34% | 66% |
| Upper Middle Quartile | 45% | 55% | 39% | 61% | 33% | 67% |
| Upper Quartile | 54% | 46% | 53% | 47% | 51% | 49% |
Table 2. Comparison of Quartlies of 2022 to 2024
What are we doing to close our gender pay gap?
The CRUK Scotland Institute is committed to reducing its gender pay gap through actions identified in our gender pay gap action plan.
Understanding the issues
The CRUK Scotland Institute operates in a sector that relies heavily on highly skilled scientific researchers and those wishing to train in this area. In the UK, the number of women now working as Science Professionals has dropped from 51.5% in 2022 to 43.7% in 2023 (WISE Campaign Report September 2023) presenting a challenge in recruiting from a decreasing pool of talent.
Almost, 63% of our postdocs are female and whilst this is encouraging, we recognise that we need to translate this higher percentage of female postdocs pursuing a scientific research career into more senior positions such as a Group Leader. At present only 31.57% of senior researchers are female, a figure we are actively looking to increase.
To improve our gender pay gap we have taken the following actions
- Adapted our recruitment practices to ensure more gender balanced interview panels and applicant shortlists. We have sought to ensure our language on adverts is inclusive. We have also continued to capture EDI data during recruitment.
- Engaged our early career researchers through Postdoc drop-in sessions to understand career challenges.
- Offered flexible work patterns.
- Provided maternity cover of up to 18 months to enable continuation of research careers.
- Reviewed grades to identify and address any gender pay gap issues.
- Promoted learning opportunities for women, including coaching, mentoring, leadership and management training.
- Ensured equal representation in our seminar series and at our scientific conferences.
We will aim for continuous improvement in these areas as well as introduce other actions to reduce our gender pay gap. This will include seeking to understand the career development challenges of our female staff. For postdocs, we will endeavour to support their transition to an independent research position. This will include support with fellowship applications, mentoring and funding to attend leadership development.
In summary
Whilst we acknowledge a gender pay gap and market challenges relating to recruitment of females in science, we are encouraged by the number of female researchers that have joined our Institute.
To retain women in science, we will continue to review our data, policies and processes to make improvements and promote development opportunities to support women to realise their full potential.
CRUK Scotland Institute is committed to improving equity. It is a fundamental aspect of encouraging equal opportunities for all. Through increased diversity we will be better able to conduct innovative and world-leading cancer research in support of Cancer Research UK's ambition of 3 in 4 people surviving their cancer by 2034.
