Why our gender and ethnicity pay gaps exist – and what we’re doing to improve them

At Cancer Research UK we’re always striving to champion diversity and inclusivity. We want our staff and volunteers to feel like they belong and can thrive at work. It’s an area we identified as a priority in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy and I recently wrote about the progress we’ve made as a charity since that publication.

We've made a commitment to being transparent, highlighting our key achievements while not shying away from the areas where improvement is needed.

Today we’re publishing our gender and ethnicity pay gaps for the reporting period of April 2021 to April 2022. The gender pay gap is the difference in average pay between all females and males, and the ethnicity pay gap is calculated by comparing the average pay of White employees and other ethnic minority colleagues. The gender and ethnicity pay gaps are not the same as equal pay. At Cancer Research UK, we conduct an equal pay audit and are confident that we pay females and males the same pay for equal work.

We welcome the opportunity to publish our pay gap reports and demonstrate how we’re doing. We remain committed to becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation by attracting, retaining and developing the very best talent to help us beat cancer.

Gender pay gap

Our mean gender pay gap reduced from 19.7% in 2021 to 18.3% in 2022, and our median gender pay gap reduced from 30.9% to 27.6%. We're pleased to have taken a step in the right direction, but the gaps remain higher than we want them to be. ?

Our gender pay gap remains affected by the overall shape and distribution of females and males working across the charity. Colleagues in our shops make up more than half of our workforce and we employ far more females than males in retail roles, which is typical of the sector in the UK. Our retail division has its own grading structure and is a lower paid sector, which continues to have the greatest impact when we compare the average hourly rates of females and males. The reduction in our mean gender pay gap over the last 12 months is largely a result of an increase to the National Living Wage.

We employ significantly more females than males across the charity, with an overall split of 76% females and 24% males. I’m pleased that we maintained our target of at least 50% of females working at Executive Board or Director levels at Cancer Research UK in quarters three and four of 21/22 and quarter one of 22/23, however this figure has dropped slightly to 47% in quarter three of 22/23.?

Ethnicity pay gap

We published our ethnicity pay gap data for the first time in 2020 and remain committed to highlighting the key areas where we can make changes that will enable us to be a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

Our mean ethnicity pay gap has reduced from -9.3% in 2021 to -5.9% in 2022. This means that staff from an ethnic minority background are paid on average more than White employees. Our median ethnicity pay gap is -23.3% in 2022, compared to -32.0% in 2021. While the ethnicity pay gap remains in favour of ethnic minority staff, it is only one indicator and is based on small numbers, so does not provide a comprehensive view of the diversity of our workforce.

There are two main factors influencing our ethnicity pay gap – the low numbers of ethnic minority colleagues employed across all levels and roles in the charity, and the lower proportion of ethnic minority colleagues employed in our shops. At the reporting date of April 2022, only 12% of staff that had disclosed their ethnicity were from an ethnic minority background, however this figure has increased to 13.5% as of December 2022.

Closing the gaps

We've made several changes to the way we recruit since publishing last year’s pay gap data. We've introduced anonymous CVs, reviewed our new and existing job descriptions, and rewritten job advertisements with a focus on accessibility and inclusivity. We review the progression rates of female and male applicants through each stage of the recruitment process, and we're also keen to improve our data capture and governance on EDI, including aiming to increase the number of staff sharing their demographic information.

In April 2022 we launched Ignite, our first internal talent development programme solely for high potential staff from ethnic minority backgrounds that have the ambition to move into leadership roles at CRUK. Three months on from the completion of year one of the programme, 20% of the cohort have moved into more senior leadership positions.?

Our commitment

We will continue to explore and further interrogate the data, engaging with staff to gather additional information and identifying areas where we could potentially make more targeted interventions. I believe that by continuing to put equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our charity, we will make faster progress against our mission of beating cancer.