2020/21 Gender Pay Gap Report

The Gender Pay Gap is a measure of the percentage difference between men’s and women’s average earnings (expressed as an hourly rate) across the organisation’s salary range.

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The Babraham Institute is world-renowned for life sciences research into the fundamental biology underpinning our understanding of human development, health and ageing. The Institute holds charitable status and is committed to promoting and developing a culture of equality, diversity, inclusivity and mutual respect that supports our ambitions and attracts highly motivated and talented people from around the world.

The Institute continues to work to support equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) at the Institute and also as part of the Babraham Research Campus. The Institute’s equality4success action plan for 2018-2022 defined areas where the need for change had been recognised and set out how the Institute is working to provide equal opportunities for all staff irrespective of gender, ethnicity, belief or sexual orientation in order to deliver excellent science. Following recognition of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and also leadership changes at the Institute from 2020-2022, the Institute’s current Silver Athena Swan status has been extended to 2024 and the implementation of the equality4success action plan also continues under this extension. Objectives defined within this action plan reflect the Institute’s commitment to working towards reducing the gender pay gap by regular analysis of pay and promotion rates, and benchmarking. The Institute continues to explore new ways to embed EDI into all areas of the scientific ecosystem, including working with others to make faster, more effective progress.

Reporting our gender pay gap annually in line with current UK legislation allows us to track our progress in building a fair and diverse community that recognises and respects everyone.

Difference between pay and bonuses for men and women at the Babraham Institute – data from the 2022 data snapshot date and comparison figures for previous years.

[1] Mean: the percentage difference in average pay between male and female employees

[2] Median: the percentage difference in the middle value pay between male and female employees

The above table shows the Babraham Institute’s overall mean and median gender pay gap (based on hourly rates of pay for all employees) at the snapshot date (5th April 2022) and additional 2021 and 2020 data for comparison of previous figures. Archived reports are available for 2021/2022, 2019/2020, 2017/2018 and 2016/2017. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the requirement for reporting gender pay gap information on the 2019 snapshot date was waived but we included our 2019 data for the continuity of the data records.

The most recent pay analysis shows that the Institute’s gender pay gap has widened, from a median difference of 3.99% in the 2021 analysis to a median difference of 6.95% in the most recent figures. Our assessment of this shift is that it is predominantly driven by changes in the ratio of female to male employees at lower pay levels, following staff turnover and recruitment. The impact of this is described in more detail below.

The table also shows the mean and median difference in bonuses paid to men and women in the year ending 5th April 2022. The bonus pay calculation represents the gender gap in performance related pay beyond standard pay increases plus bonuses paid to executive level employees.

The gender pay gap in relation to bonus data also increased between the 2021 and 2022 reporting periods. As in previous years, the data continues to be affected by how bonuses are awarded at the Institute. Typically, performance-related pay for employees below the top grades is consolidated into their basic pay whereas executive level staff receive non-consolidated performance bonuses. The gender pay gap in mean bonus pay remains our greatest pay gap and is due to staff employed in the most senior roles and highest pay bands being male and receiving bonuses rather than consolidated pay awards.

The gender pay gap in bonus pay is also affected by the proportion of bonuses paid to male employees compared to female employees. While the proportion has been at parity for male and female staff previously, the bonus pay awards for this reporting period show that 35% of male employees at the Institute received a bonus compared to 30% of female employees. The proportion of employees overall who receive a pay award continues to increase for both female and male groupings, reflecting stronger processes for identifying and rewarding exceptional performance.

Pay Quartiles

The data below identifies the Babraham Institute’s gender distribution across the four equal quartiles (with each quartile containing 65 employees, apart from the top quartile which contains 66 employees). At the snap-shot date of 5th April 2022 the gender split across Babraham Institute staff was 54% females compared to 46% males.

In comparison with the gender balance at the 2021 data capture, the percentage of women has increased across the three lower quartiles. From analysis of recruitment and staff turnover in the last year, we can see that female members of staff filled some positions that were occupied by male member of staff in roles that fall within the two lower quartiles.

After achieving parity in the fourth, highest paid, quartile in the 2021 report, the gender balance in 2022 is 47% female and 53% male. In terms of the number of posts represented in this group, the gender split is 31 female-held positions and 35 male-held positions.

Relevant data on recruitment and promotions

The shifting nature of our staff base means that some factors affecting the gender pay gap are outside of our control, as described above where our gender balance is shifted by male-held positions being filled by females following recruitment when employees have left us to take up new opportunities.

In terms of higher-level appointments in the reporting period leading up to the snapshot date, the Institute appointed one senior female group leader, and gained four tenure-track group leaders; two male and two female.

In the year preceding the snapshot date a total of 26 employees were promoted: 9 females and 17 males. To split the promotion awards by the two upper and lower quartiles, promotions affecting roles in the top two quartiles were awarded to 5 females and 12 males, and in the lower two quartiles were awarded to 4 females and 5 males. In the upper quartiles four of the male promotions were through application for externally advertised vacancies being filled by internal applicants, two filled positions previously held by males and two filled positions previously held by females.

What we can identify from the data

Despite encouraging movement towards closing the gender pay gap in previous years, we are disappointed to see a widening of the gap in 2022 compared to the 2021 figures. We remain confident that men and women are paid equally for equivalent level roles across the organisation and attribute the widening gap to personnel changes affecting the gender split across the different pay quartiles and promotion outcomes. An increase in the proportion of female employees at lower pay grades has shifted the median pay down for females and up for males. We recognise that the promotion of more male employees in the reporting period running to April 2022, which, in part, included career progression through applications for more senior roles, will also have affected the gender pay gap.

Although we robustly analyse and reflect on the gender pay gap date year-on-year, we recognise that as a small organisation, small differences have significant effects. We remain committed to long-term change, equitable practices and sustained effort to close our gender pay gap.

How we are taking action

The Board of Trustees and Institute senior leadership remain committed to making progress and responding to our gender pay gap analysis and wider data. Through the continuation of a combination of approaches, the Institute is committed to eradicating the gender pay gap. These include regularly monitoring gender pay and equal pay, minimising gender biased actions in recruitment practices, assessing gender differences in the uptake of professional training and development opportunities, and identifying and addressing biases in how promotions are awarded.

Eradicating the gender pay gap is part of the Institute’s wider commitment to support all employees to achieve their maximum potential, and to remove any barriers to this where possible. Our equality4success programme spearheads our equality, diversity and inclusion projects in order to meet this commitment but the wider Institute actively works as a community to highlight and address areas that represent inequality, impede progress and affect performance. To give specific examples, the Institute’s Personal Promotion scheme was relaunched in April 2022, online and local provision of leadership courses has eliminated the requirement for participants needing to arrange time away from home, and equality, diversity and inclusion are incorporated in our recruitment practices through unconscious bias training for interview and selection panels and the inclusion of personal commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion in all role specifications.

The Institute is also investing in career development and role progression for our employees, strengthening our culture of support and building pipelines of career progression routes.