Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports 2022

Our commitment to an inclusive workplace

We've published our pay gap reports for 2022.

We will continue to set ambitious EDI targets to become the best charity that we can be and make the greatest progress in our collective fight against cancer.

Read the statement from our Chief Executive Officer, Michelle Mitchell below.

Our CEO, Michelle Mitchell on our Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports

We've published Cancer Research UK’s gender and ethnicity pay gap reports.

There is a UK government requirement for all companies with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap data. We’ve also published our ethnicity pay gap report, which isn’t a legal requirement, but we welcome the opportunity to be open and transparent. The 2022 gender and ethnicity pay figures are calculated on data available on our reporting date, 5 April 2022.

The gender and ethnicity pay gaps are not the same as equal pay, which formed part of the 2010 Equality Act. The act prohibits discrimination on grounds of race and gender and other protected characteristics, and involves females and males or White and ethnic minority employees being paid the same for like/similar work. 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.

The gender pay gap is the difference in average pay between all females and males regardless of the work they perform. The ethnicity pay gap is calculated by comparing the average pay of White employees and other ethnic minority employees in an organisation, regardless of the roles they do.

Gender pay gap

Our mean (average) gender pay gap has reduced from 19.7% in 2021 to 18.3% in 2022, and our median (middle) gender pay gap has reduced from 30.9% to 27.6%. While we're pleased that these results show some improvement, the gaps remain higher than we would like and reducing them further will take time.

Our gender pay gap remains affected by the overall shape and distribution of females and males working across the charity, which hasn’t changed much since last year. The gap worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic primarily due to changes made to our structure. Colleagues in our shops continue to make up more than half of our workforce and we employ far more females than males in retail roles, which is typical of the retail sector in the UK. It is a lower paid sector, which continues to have the greatest impact when we compare the average hourly rates of females and males.

Ethnicity pay gap

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 pay gaps remain 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.

How we're closing the gaps

We've made several changes to the way we recruit since publishing last year’s pay gap data. We've reviewed all our job descriptions, rewritten job adverts with a focus on accessibility and inclusivity, and introduced anonymous applications at all levels of the recruitment process. These changes have been made to remove bias from the shortlisting process and ensure we can attract, retain and develop the very best talent to help us beat cancer.

We will explore and interrogate our pay gap data in more detail, engaging with colleagues across the charity and identifying key areas where we could make more targeted interventions. We will continue to set ambitious EDI targets to become the best charity that we can be and make the greatest progress in our collective fight against cancer.