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The Babraham Institute is world-renowned for life sciences research into the fundamental biology underpinning 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’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion continued through 2019-2020, as set out in the action plan for our second Silver Athena SWAN award which was made to the Institute in October 2018. This plan sets out how the Institute works to provide equal opportunities for all staff irrespective of gender, ethnicity, belief or sexual orientation in order to deliver excellent science. 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. In 2019 the Institute joined both the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Science and Health (EDIS) coalition and the Stonewall Diversity Champions programme and 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. 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 from the most senior to the most junior pay.
[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 2020) and additional 2019 data for comparison of progress made and the influence of wider pay-related activities.
In comparison with data from 2019, it shows that the Institute’s gender pay gap has reduced since the 2019 analysis, reflecting an increase in the percentage of women in the highest paid quartiles (see section below: ‘What we can identify from the data’).
The table also captures the mean and median difference in bonuses paid to men and women in the year ending 5th April 2020. The bonus pay calculation represents the gender gap in performance related pay over and above standard pay increases plus bonuses paid to executive level staff.
The Gender Pay Gap in relation to bonus data increased significantly between the 2019 and 2020 reporting periods. This is predominantly the result of an Institute-wide in-depth pay review, after which all staff received a higher than inflation basic pay increase but a lower than typical performance related element of the pay increase. The data is also affected by how the bonuses are awarded. Typically, performance related pay for staff below the top grades is consolidated into their basic pay. However, executive level staff receive non-consolidated performance bonuses which were unaffected by the pay review, thus creating an anomaly in the gender gap for bonuses for the reporting period.
The charts below show that an equivalent percentage of females and males are recognised by bonus pay awards.
Pay quartiles
The data below identifies the Babraham Institute’s gender distribution across the four equal quartiles. At the snap-shot date of 5th April 2020 the gender split across Babraham Institute staff was 56% females compared to 44% males.
We note that the smallest gender imbalance is in the fourth (highest paid) quartile, reflecting a progression towards increasing female representation amongst our most senior staff. Looking at the gender distribution across all four quartiles, we also note that the greatest representation of males across the quartiles is in the highest paid quartile with the lowest representation in the first (lowest paid) quartile. Whilst the improved gender balance in the highest paid quartile is encouraging, the Board of Trustees and Institute senior leadership remain committed to continuing a programme of change, as is referenced in the below section ‘How we are taking action’.
What we can identify from the data
The Institute remains confident that men and women are paid equally for equivalent level roles across the organisation. However, as identified in the above data and from the 2020 analysis, there continues to be an imbalance between male and female representation across all four quartiles with females dominating the lower three quartiles, whereas in the fourth highest paid quartile the balance shifts to males being represented in the greatest number, which creates our gender pay and bonus gap. However, comparing the data between 2019 and 2020 the Institute is showing progression towards increasing female representation in the fourth (highest paid) quartile (38% in 2019 compared to 46% in 2020). Promotion of women to more senior roles through the reporting period has improved the representation of women at these levels and this is something that the Institute continues to work towards.
How we are taking action
While the Institute is pleased to see progress made towards reducing its gender pay gap, it remains committed to making further headway. Our Board of Trustees has demonstrated commitment to this challenge by setting a target of 30% of staff at Band 3 and above being female by 2022. The Institute also aims to achieve a gender pay gap of less than 10% by 2022 (mean gender pay gap representing no more than 10% difference in average pay between male and female employees).
These objectives are 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, initiatives have led to an increase in women applying for and being successful in obtaining promotions, 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.
A change to this year’s reporting
Previous reports included a separate gender pay gap analysis for the staff employed at the Institute’s nursery, however, as the facility operates in an independent employment sector, the decision has been made to no longer include the nursery in the Institute’s gender pay gap reporting going forwards.