Gender pay gap report 2021
Content
Diversity is essential to excellence in scientific endeavour. It increases breadth and perspective, leading to more innovation and creativity.
We want the Crick to be a place where everyone feels valued and where diversity is celebrated and seen as part of the foundation for our institute’s success.
We remain committed to creating equality of opportunity and promoting diversity and inclusion at the Francis Crick Institute.
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 fifth snapshot date of 5 April 2021.
Previous gender pay gap reports
What is the gender pay gap at the Crick?
Our mean gender pay gap was 12.7% in April 2021 and our median gender pay gap was 3.0%. This is slightly lower than the national mean gender pay gap of 14.9% and considerably lower than the national median gender pay gap of 15.4% in November 2021.
Source: Office for National Statistics
Has there been any change to our gender pay gap?
We continue to review and aim to reduce our gender pay gap. However, this year, our mean gender pay gap has widened slightly from 11.5% in 2020 to 12.7% in April 2021, and our median gender pay gap has changed from 2.9% to 3.0%.
Gender pay gap fluctuations are to be expected, and some of our comparator organisations have reported a widening of their gender pay gap since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our gender pay gap in April 2021 remains lower than it was when it was first reported in April 2017. Evidently, we are driving lasting change to our gender pay gap and our approach to gender equity.
Why do we have a gender pay gap?
As in previous years, the main reason that we have a gender pay gap at the Crick is because we have more men than women in senior roles across our institute.
One of the reasons that our gender pay gap has widened this year, is because the number of women in lower paid roles in the lower quartile has increased (from 52% in 2020 to 55% in 2021) and there has been a small reduction in the number of women in the upper quartile (from 41% in 2020 to 40% in 2021).
Overall there are more women than men working at the Crick. In 2019 54% of employees at the Crick were women, in 2020 this proportion fell to 52% and has remained at 52% in 2021.
The Crick's 2021 pay gap
The Crick's 2021 gender pay gap
UK pay gap figures are from the Office for National Statistics compiled from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings., 2 November 2021.
Proportion of men and women in each pay quartile
2021 bonus pay gap
The Crick does not operate a bonus scheme. For gender pay gap reporting purposes we are required to report any rewards related to profit sharing, productivity or performance.
We made four payments that relate to profit sharing, productivity or performance in the reporting period. These were all payments under our Rewards to Inventors programme, under which individuals, who create intellectual property that the Crick is able to commercialise, may be entitled to a share of the net revenue this generates. However, as all these payments were made to women, we do not have a bonus pay gap.
What are we doing to address our gender pay gap?
What are we doing to address our gender pay gap?
Our focus on gender balance and equity have contributed an overall reduction in our gender pay gap since reporting began in 2017, and we anticipate a trend towards continued narrowing of our gender pay gap in the years ahead.
We are committed to creating a culture that promotes inclusivity and supports working parents, and to recruiting and developing women leaders in science.
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 and recognition to ensure gender equity and monitoring recruitment statistics to ensure we are accessible to women at all stages in their career.
Action we have taken includes:
- A core funded research programme for all new group leaders which appears to remove the need for unhealthy competition and our colleagues, in particular, like the model as it provides a stable period when research can be done without the stress of writing grants and provides stability and flexibility to start a family without the concerns of securing grants while having a career break.
- A generous support package for group leaders moving to the Crick to enable them to settle and support their family during the first few years.
- 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 offer family friendly policies and benefits to all staff and have structured our benefits to provide support for family and carers. All staff can access childcare allowances for young children and up to five days emergency carer and childcare cover per year, and wellbeing support for all family members including a 24 hour GP service and assistance programme.
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
