Our strategic aim is to sustain Imperial as a world-leading research-intensive university and ensure our mission is fit for the post-COVID era. Imperial's academic, teaching, professional, technical and operational staff are the key to our success and maintaining our leading position.
Our Total Remuneration Package (TRP) for staff is a key component of realising Imperial's strategic aim, with the salary we offer forming a crucial part of the package. This page outlines the principles upon which our approach to salary is based and the processes we review regularly.
Principles of pay
- Equality of pay
- Rates of Pay
- Job evaluation
- Annual Pay Award
- Pay Increments
- Clinical Staff & Research Nurses
We are committed to ensuring equal pay for all staff and eliminating any pay gaps. Analysing pay data is a crucial part of the People Function's work and forms a key part of Imperial's drive to eliminate pay imbalances and ensure that all staff in similar work (regardless of gender and ethnicity) receive equal pay.
This year, Imperial undertook and published its fourth Gender Pay Gap exercise and its first Ethnicity Pay Gap. These reviews will continue to be carried out annually. The gender and ethnicity pay gaps have arisen from an underrepresentation of women and Black and Minority Ethnic staff in senior grades at Imperial.
Although the gaps are closing, progress is slow, and Imperial is implementing action plans to identify ways to improve them and close them further. To view the findings and the action Imperial is taking to eliminate the gender and ethnicity pay gaps, please visit the gender and ethnicity pay review web pages.
Imperial aims to pay median to upper-quartile rates of pay for staff against appropriate external comparators wherever possible, whilst also ensuring Imperial stays within what is affordable.
Imperial pays at or above the London Living Wage for all staff and all outsourced staff.
All new jobs or those with significantly revised job descriptions are evaluated by trained assessors, including Trade Union representatives, using the internationally recognised Hay job evaluation methodology. Jobs with equivalents elsewhere in the College are job matched.
The points allocated by the evaluators determine the grade for the post. This grade is based on the post's requirements, not the experience or qualifications of the current postholder.
With the exception of staff on clinical pay scales and some on historical Imperial terms and conditions, pay is reviewed annually in negotiation with the Trade Unions and ultimately agreed upon by the University Management Board (UMB).
The pay and benefits data that inform UMB's decision-making on the pay offer are subject to an annual consultation with all staff before the pay bargaining process commences. Imperial considers an increase in pay, taking into account affordability assessed against the Unions' pay claim. Recruitment and retention data and other sector pay awards are also considered when arriving at the maximum offer that the College can make. The annual pay award is normally paid on 1 August.
The results of the negotiations are published each year and can be accessed on the annual pay award web page.
Progression through Imperial salary scales is in increments, or steps, applied yearly through a spine point increase. Progression to the next spine point happens automatically on 1 October.
Increments are not automatically applied to staff who have reached the top spine point of their grade, staff on fixed salaries, or staff under formal disciplinary or performance reviews. For staff who have reached the top spine point of their grade and staff on fixed salaries, any review of pay would be undertaken through the Annual Pay Relativity exercise on a non-automatic basis.
Please visit the salary scale web pages to see the spine points in your salary scale.
Staff on clinical scales and the Agenda for Change pay scale, set by the NHS, may be eligible for clinical excellence awards as agreed on an individual basis. They do not receive pay increments or awards in line with local negotiations, as they are not on local pay scales.
Pay for these scales is negotiated nationally, and changes following nationally agreed-uplifts are supplied to Imperial via the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA).