Our 2024 pay gap report has now been published. It includes an analysis of Imperial's pay gaps relating to gender, ethnicity, and, for the first time, disability.
We are proud to report our disability pay gap for the first time this year, ensuring we widen the scope of support and provisions we need to put in place for our disabled community at Imperial. The first reporting figures for 2024 show that our median disability pay gap stands at 8.2% and the mean gap at 7.6%.
We are also updating the data for gender and ethnicity, which are published annually. The median and the mean gender pay gap have both increased: up to 10.3% for the median and 14.8% for the mean. Further, Imperial's ethnicity pay gap has increased to 13.2% for the median and 19.5% for the mean.
It is disheartening to see pay gaps widening, especially in light of the dedicated efforts by our Faculties, Departments, and Professional Services. Notable progress has been made, such as increasing the number and proportion of female Professors. Moving forward, we must continue working to close these gaps by reinforcing our long-term strategies, including the Race Equality Charter and Athena Swan action plans.
Systemic change continues to be needed to reduce these gaps, which reflect an under-representation of women, minority ethnic and disabled colleagues employed at the senior levels of Imperial. This is evident particularly in Reader and Professorial appointments in the academic roles and Levels 6 and 7 in the Professional Services job family.
Imperial is committed to finding ways to close the gender, ethnicity, and disability pay gaps. This will include renewing and refreshing plans in place at a faculty and department level, as well as university-wide. Further information on the university's initiatives and actions can be found here.
People are what makes Imperial successful and are at the centre of delivering our academic mission.
Best wishes,
Professor Ian Walmsley
Provost
more information
While ethnicity pay gap reporting is still voluntary, Imperial has published details of its ethnicity pay gaps since 2018. Figures for 2024 show that the gap between the median hourly pay of Black and Minority Ethnic group (BAME) and the White ethnic group (which includes White Other) at Imperial has increased from 9.5% in 2023 to 13.2%.
The gap between the mean hourly pay of Black and Minority Ethnic group (BAME) and the White ethnic group at Imperial has also increased since last year, from 15.7% to 19.5%.
For the first time this year, Imperial has calculated its disability pay gap reporting. The disability pay gap highlights the median hourly pay gap between disabled and non-disabled employees across the university.
There is also no law requiring employers to calculate and report on Disability Pay Gaps, and no formal Government guidance exists in this area (unlike for the Ethnicity Pay Gap, where guidance does exist).
The first reporting figures for 2024 show that our median disability pay gap is 8.2%, and the mean gap is 7.6%.
Imperial pay gaps are predominantly due to an underrepresentation of women, BAME, and disabled colleagues employed in the senior levels of Imperial, particularly the academic grades and also within Levels 6 and 7 in the Professional Services job family. This is reflected in the current Imperial representation in the upper quartiles.
The existence of the pay gaps does not mean that the University has an equal pay problem.
Imperial has implemented many initiatives to address the broad concept of equal representation at all levels. The 'Initiatives and Projects' link below provides more information on these initiatives.
What are the figures we've reported?
Like all other large organisations, Imperial has reported data across several different elements: gender, ethnicity, and disability quartiles, mean and median pay gaps, and pay gaps in bonuses. You can access the data through the links below for the Gender, Ethnicity, and Disability pay gaps.
