With only a small gap in pay within grades, do we now have equal pay at my university?

Equal Pay, in the legal sense, is not to be confused with the gender pay gap, although they are related. Equal pay is about ensuring women and men are paid the same for equivalent work, or work of ‘equal value’.

If an institution has undertaken a rigorous equal pay review, there are still a number of things that can be done to reduce the gender pay gap, which is the overall difference in pay between women and men, regardless of grade. As women tend to be clustered in less senior positions, and in administrative support roles rather than academic roles, they are generally lower down the pay scale than men.

Looking at equal pay in the purely legal sense is not enough if universities are serious about tackling the gender pay gap. More needs to be done to deal with women being clustered in lower-paid and part-time jobs, and segregated in certain occupations and disciplines.

The University of Southampton was one of the first universities to do an equal pay review after implementing the Framework Agreement. They identified a number of inequalities between men's and women’s pay at different grades. But when differentials within grades had been addressed over a two-year period, they found that the overall gap between women's and men’s pay had reduced by only 4 per cent, from 26 to 22 per cent.

Initiatives aimed at advancing women’s careers or addressing occupational segregation will have a very significant impact on the aggregate difference in pay between women and men.

Also, women are over-represented in part-time jobs, and research has shown that nationally women working part-time receive 40 per cent less pay, pro rata, than men working full-time. Creating more senior part-time positions and supporting men to work part-time will also narrow the gender pay gap in universities.

University good practice

• Opportunity Now exemplar employer case study: The University of Staffordshire
• Opportunity Now exemplar employer case study: The University of Sunderland