Gender pay gap report 2019

The outside of the Crick and trees.

The gender pay gap and equal pay

The gender pay gap between women and men is not the same as equal pay for men and women.

The gender pay gap is the difference in average earnings between all men and women across an organisation, regardless of the work they perform.

Equal pay is where men and women in one organisation are paid the same for the same or similar work. This has been a legal requirement for more than 50 years.

We remain committed to creating equality of opportunity and promoting diversity and inclusion at the Francis Crick Institute.

Greater diversity is needed for science because diverse groups of people have a wider range of experiences and perspectives, leading to greater creativity and ultimately more scientific discovery.

We are an equal pay employer. However, we have a gender pay gap and continue to work towards addressing that gap.

The figures in this report are for the third snapshot date of 5 April 2019. For figures from the first snapshot date, read our 2017 gender pay gap report. For figures from the second snapshot date, read our 2018 gender pay gap report. 

What is the gender pay gap at the Crick?

Our mean gender pay gap was 15.4% in 2019 and our median gender pay gap was 3.5%.  These are slightly lower than the national mean gender pay gap of 16.3% and considerably lower then the national median gender pay gap of 17.4% in October 2019 (source: Office for National Statistics, 29 October 2019).

Mean and media pay gap at the Crick compared to mean and median pay gap in the UK.
UK pay gap figures are from the Office for National Statistics annual survey of hours and earnings, 29 October 2019. The Crick has a 0% bonus gap because we do not pay bonuses. 

Proportion of men and women in each pay quartile

Graph showing proportions of male and female staff at different pay levels at the Crick.

Has there been any change to our gender pay gap?

Our mean gender pay gap has changed slightly from 15.4% in April 2017 to 14.2% in April 2018 and back to 15.4% in April 2019 and our median gender pay gap has changed from 7.2% to 3.5% since 2017.

Why do we have a gender pay gap?

We continue to have a gender pay gap because we have more men than women in senior roles across our institute. The proportion of women in our institute has also increased from 52% in 2017 to 54% in 2019, but the proportion of women in senior roles is unchanged at 41%.

The institutes which came together to form the Crick in 2015 had more men than women in senior science roles. Since establishing the new institute, we have begun to redress this balance through our recruitment of new research group leaders. It is our stated ambition to ensure the Crick is seen as a leader when it comes to supporting women in science. The starting point for this is to ensure we attract, recruit and retain talented women in science. On average 30% of applicants for senior science roles at the Crick are from women. Our focus on shortlisting and selection through the recruitment process for early career Group Leaders has led to 44% of appointments being women in the last 5 years.

Gender balance in research group leaders

In April 2019, 30% of our research group leaders are women, up from 21% in 2015.

Graph showing the gender breakdown of Crick group leaders

What are we doing to address our gender pay gap?

We have begun to make changes at the Crick to improve diversity and inclusion, but it takes time for these to lead to changes at senior levels. We are committed to creating a culture that promotes inclusivity, and to recruiting and developing women leaders in science. We anticipate seeing significant changes in the gender balance at senior levels in the forthcoming years.

In support of our ambition to promote women in science and improve our gender pay gap we continue to monitor and review our activity: reviewing our pay review and outstanding contribution programme to ensure gender balance and monitoring recruitment statistics to ensure we are accessible to women at all stages in their career.

Since we published our first gender pay gap report in April 2017, we have:

  • Introduced support for childcare costs for parents with young children returning to work from April 2018;
  • appointed women to at least 44% of new group leader positions each year;
  • promoted shared parental leave at all levels across the institute.
  • received an Athena Swan Bronze Institution Award in October 2019 to formally recognise our commitment to improving gender equality at the Crick; 
  • launched a new leadership development programme in July 2019 to help embed the value of diversity and inclusion. 

We wish to ensure that the Crick is attractive to women in science and at all levels in their career. To this end we ensure;

  • A core funded research programme for all new group leaders which appears to remove the need for unhealthy competition and our female colleagues, in particular, like the model as it provides a stable period when research can be done without the stress of writing grants and stability and flexibility to start a family without the concerns of securing grants while having a career break. 
  • Automatic contract extensions and flexibility on review dates for colleagues taking maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
  • We provide training and development opportunities to educate and enable colleagues with mentoring programmes encouraged for all staff, and essential training in equality, diversity and inclusion.
  • We have structured our benefits to provide support for family and carers. All staff can access up to 5 days emergency carer and childcare cover per year and wellbeing support for all family members including a 24 hour GP service.

We must continue to be proactive in our approach to increasing all forms of diversity, including gender diversity at the Crick, if we are to pursue our strategy of discovery without boundaries.

I confirm that our gender pay gap calculations are accurate and meet the requirements of the regulations.

Fiona Roberts
Chief People Officer