Principles of remuneration
Imperial’s pay and benefits package is a critical factor in our ability to attract and retain an outstanding and diverse staff community. We are committed to offering all staff a pay and benefits package that is equitable, fair and appropriately reflects the College’s standing as a world leading university.
Rates of pay
The College regularly benchmarks rates of pay against internal and appropriate external comparators. The College aims to pay mid to upper quartile rates of pay for all its staff against appropriate external comparators wherever possible within financial constraints.
Annual cost of living pay review
The College’s annual cost of living pay review for all staff on local pay bargaining terms and conditions is jointly negotiated with the College Trades Unions (the University and College Union, Unite and Unison).
The review considers all elements of reward that impact on staff costs. The College sets the award, taking into account affordability as the principal requirement but assessed against staff demands based on inflationary pressures.
On 1 August 2017, the College implemented a pay increase of 2% for salaries up to £67,110 plus 0.5% for staff earning above that amount. This was the second consecutive year that we adopted a tapered approach to provide an increased benefit for lower and middle grades. This pay offer was accepted by the recognised joint Trades Unions.
The contractor minimum rate for those employed primarily on College activities was also set at £10.00 per hour, which was 2.5% above the London Living Wage at that time.
Senior staff pay review
Each year, the Remuneration Committee undertake a senior staff pay review, comparing the salaries of all staff earning more than £100,000 with benchmark data from the University Council for Education Administration (UCEA) Senior Staff Remuneration Survey and the Russell Group Salary Surveys for Non Academic Management, Professors and Readers. In addition, the President’s salary is benchmarked against the Committee of University Chairs Survey.
Income derived from external activities
Many of the College’s academic and professional staff collaborate with and contribute to industry, professional bodies, commerce, charities and government. This work can include personal directorships, partnerships, consultancies (including private clinical practice), trusteeships, trade engagements, memberships of official committees and intellectual property licensing and involvement in spinout companies.
This paid and unpaid work is integral to the delivery of the College’s mission, strengthening our collaboration with partners and helping us inform decision makers to influence policy.
Members of the College must request approval for external activity. They must disclose the number of days that will be committed to the activity, and senior officers of the College must also disclose any personal remuneration that will be received from the activity.
In reviewing requests, the College considers whether the activity could compromise the full performance of the College member’s duties, and how the activity could serve the interest of the College and the College member.
Retention of the income is part of the approval process for new interests where this is proportionate, in line with the College’s external interest policy and practice applied to all staff.
The gender pay gap
In 2017–18, the College published details of its gender pay gap. This shows that the gap between the median hourly pay of men and women at Imperial is 9.4%. This gender pay gap is not the same as equal pay; Imperial pays men and women the same for work of equal value.
The main reason for our gender pay gap is that we have more men than women in our senior, more well-paid roles. The lower three quartiles have nearly a 50–50 split between men and women, but the top quartile is 70.1% men and 29.9% women.
Our gender pay gap is broadly in line with the national average. While we have a slightly bigger gap than the higher education sector as a whole, we have a smaller gap compared to other universities in the research-intensive Russell Group.
We are committed to addressing the imbalance by tackling barriers to progression by providing personalised development, rolling out unconscious bias training, and further developing our award-winning family friendly initiatives. In terms of recruitment, we introduced a ‘Know Your Pool’ as detailed on page 12. We are also seeking to tackle the gender imbalance in STEM generally through outreach work with schools.