The gender pay gap is not going away

For most of November and December the average woman in the UK effectively works for free. That is if you compare her annual salary to that of her male colleagues. The median gender pay gap in the UK is currently 15.5%, down from 17.4% in 2019. In chemistry-related jobs, the pay gap is even greater. The Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2019 pay and reward survey (of over 6000 members) reported that the median woman earns 21% less than the median man, representing £9500 less earned every year. These inequalities haven’t gone unnoticed, with the same survey indicating only 52% of women agree that their workplace offers equal opportunities for all employees, compared to 64% of men. For those hoping that gender inequality is in the past, the pay gap shows there is still work to be done.

A 2019 survey from the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and Aon showed similar trends in Europe’s life sciences sector. While the size of the gap varies dramatically in different countries, ‘the data suggests Europe has a gender pay gap problem that is larger than in the US and also Asia’, says Kathrin Schoenborn, HBA’s European council chair. The report also showed the largest pay gaps occurred in R&D functions within these companies, at 18.2%, compared to 11.1% in general management.

A gender pay gap exists in university research as well. ‘We certainly aren’t the worst offenders. The worst, in terms of the gender pay gap, are the legal and actuarial professions,’ says Alice Chilver, head of people and organisational development at the University of Oxford, UK, and co-founder of the Womens Higher Education Network. ‘But I don’t mean to be complacent at all, because the higher education sector still has a long way to go,’ she adds.