Gender pay gap report 2020 Introduction

This is the fourth report on the gender pay gap at the University of St Andrews, utilising a framework provided by the UK Government.

‘Gender pay gap’ is a measure of the difference between the average hourly pay of men and women across the whole organisation. It is not a measure of unequal pay, which is the difference in pay between men and women doing the same job. Unequal pay is against the law, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.

The Equality Act (Scottish Specific Duties) 2012 regulations requires the University of St Andrews to publish gender pay gap data. The 2017 UK regulations, which stipulate more extensive analysis, do not apply to universities in Scotland. However, the University decided to produce a gender pay analysis to allow direct and meaningful comparison with other organisations, including almost 200 universities. By openly participating in this submission, it provides the opportunity for the University to map trends in its own gender pay and those of others.

The information in this report provides the mean and median gender pay gaps for the organisation as a whole and is broken down by grade. Figures have been calculated using the technical guidance set out by the UK Government Equalities Office.

Measures

The mean hourly rate is calculated by adding all of the hourly rates together and dividing by the number of individuals in the data set. The pay gap is the average difference between the mean hourly pay rate of men and women.

The median hourly rate is calculated by arranging the hourly rates of all individuals in the data set in numerical order to identify the middle (or median) hourly rate. This means that 50% of individuals will earn more than this hourly rate and 50% will earn less. The median gender pay gap is the difference between the mid-point hourly pay rate of men and women. The 2019 and 2020 gender pay gap calculations have considered subtractions of pension contributions via salary sacrifice; this has led to lower hourly rates in comparison to those reported in 2018.