Gender Pay Report 2017

Today we are publishing Cancer Research UK’s gender pay gap.

There is a new Government requirement for all companies with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap data.  We welcome this opportunity to be transparent about our gender pay gap and have included a full copy of the report on our website.

On 5th April 2017, we had a mean gender pay gap of 18.7%, compared to the national average of 17.4%. We clearly aren’t where we want to be on this.  We recognise we have work to do to and are committed to significantly reducing it. 

The Gender Pay Gap is not the same as Equal Pay, which has been a legal requirement in the UK for over 40 years and involves men and women being paid the same for like/similar work. When they do the same job, men and women are paid equally at Cancer Research UK. If we had an equal representation of men and women at all levels and in all types of roles in Cancer Research UK, there would be no pay gap.

The Gender Pay Gap is the difference in average pay between all men and women regardless of the work they perform. 

Although we have 77% of women overall in the organisation, women represent only 68% of our most senior roles. Although we have recently seen a tangible shift in women at the most senior levels, this doesn’t go far enough yet.  We also have a disproportionate number of men in technical roles (such as in IT) that typically attract higher levels of pay than other roles.  We have more women than men in some of our typically lower paid roles, such as those in retail, which make up the largest proportion of our workforce, but which, in line with the sector, is a lower paid industry.

Creating a diverse working culture where everyone can reach their full potential is hugely important to us at Cancer Research UK.  Measures we are taking to address our gender pay gap include:

• Addressing our gap in technology roles: we have signed up to the Tech Talent Charter pledge, which works to bring together industries and organisations with the aim of driving diversity and addressing gender imbalance in technology roles. 
• Flexible working: we already consider flexible working patterns and locations for all of our roles and endeavour to meet all requests where we are able to do so
• Nurturing female talent at senior levels: we are proud that 74% of our Heads of Department are women.  We are committed to supporting them in becoming the Directors and Executive Directors of the future
• Shortlisting at our most senior levels: we are committed to producing balanced and inclusive shortlists for senior appointments 

I, and the whole of the Executive Board, are committed to reducing our gender pay gap across Cancer Research UK.

Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive Officer
Cancer Research UK