Some of Nottinghamshire’s leading female academics are earning as much as £8,000 less a year than their male counterparts according to research into the gender pay gap at universities and colleges.
Male professors at the University of Nottingham earn an average of £81,344 compared to £74,566 for women, according to the University and Colleges Union.
And women in general academic roles at the university earned £8,844 less than men, who took home an average £51,490 compared to women, on £42,646.
The UCU released the figures in a ‘top 30’ list of the country’s biggest academic pay gaps, published as part of International Women’s Day.
we acknowledge that there is still some way to go
A spokeswoman for The University Of Nottingham said: “We are committed to the principle of equal pay for work of equal value for all employees and take any level of inequality extremely seriously. We have worked very hard in recent years to tackle this through regular equal pay reviews, initiatives to support more women into senior roles, and monitoring of our recruitment experience but we acknowledge that there is still some way to go.”
UCU also said female staff at Vision West Nottinghamshire College earned more than £1,000 less than their male counterparts – but the college questioned the union’s findings, adding it believed the gap is much smaller.
Picture: University of Nottingham campus
Tracey Thompson, HR Director at Vision West Nottinghamshire College, said in a statement: “We dispute the figures contained in UCU’s report. Based on the data we provided to them, and using the methodology contained in the report, we calculate the gender pay gap at the college to be £182; not the £1,685 being reported.
“As such, we would welcome a discussion with UCU to fully understand exactly how it made its calculations.
We believe men and women doing the same job should be paid equally
“As a responsible employer, the college remains absolutely committed to gender equality and continues to work extremely hard to put this into action in all areas of our employment practices.
“We believe men and women doing the same job should be paid equally, which is why we are striving to achieve full pay parity across the board by addressing any discrepancies that may exist.”
UCU say that the statistics for the University of Nottingham came from the Higher Education Statistics Agency and stats from Vision West Notts College came directly from the institute in a Freedom of Information request.
Video: Google released this short to celebrate women’s equality around the world.
Sally Hunt, UCU General Secretary said: “These institutions should not have allowed such shameful levels of pay inequality to persist. It’s nearly 50 years since the Equal Pay Act came into force and they’re still flying in the face of it.
“Today on International Women’s Day, we’d like to see a firm commitment from sector leaders to close the gap and are offering to work with institutions across the East Midlands region to put an end to pay inequality.”
Figures from Robert Half UK revealed that over a 52-year career women are set for a £298,064 shortfall in earnings – with men earning 24 per cent more than women every year.
