As a top ten University, we rely on the hard work, dedication and innovation of colleagues across our entire community. Developing a truly inclusive environment in which we can all succeed underpins everything that we do at Loughborough. Ensuring that there is equality of opportunity is fundamental to our success. Changing our gender pay gap is a long-term strategy that is influenced by the speed, or not, of societal change. We are committed to influencing change within our Loughborough community.

The Gender Pay Gap

What the gender pay gap is

The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between men’s and women’s average earning across an organisation.

The gap itself is the percentage difference (mean and median) between average hourly earnings for men and women across the university irrespective of grade, job family or work undertaken.

The figure is significantly affected by the distribution of staff across the grades. This means that an institution with a high gender pay gap will have a staff population that sees lower grades predominately occupied by women and higher grades predominantly occupied by men.

What the gender pay gap is not

The gender pay gap is not an indication of how much more male employees are earning than females doing the same work. This concept is called equal pay.

What underpins our gender pay gap

There are a few key factors that impact Loughborough’s gender pay gap.

Whilst we are not the only university to be impacted by these factors, the combination means that our pay gap is higher than a number of other, seemingly similar, universities.

STEM subjects. There are typically fewer female than male academics in STEM subjects. Universities with a strong STEM presence are likely to have a larger gender pay gap than those without STEM.
Lower grades. There is typically a higher concentration of females in lower graded roles such as cleaning and catering. At Loughborough we believe that it is important to keep these functions in-house (as opposed to outsourcing them as others have done) as this means that colleagues benefit from Loughborough’s great terms and conditions. Where universities outsource roles at lower levels, this reduces their gender pay gap. We can see some improvement in the representative numbers this year.
Unequal numbers of men and women at grades 7–9. Grades 7–9 are now 40% female (up from 38% last year). This remains underrepresented against the wider workforce population which is 53% female. This is also the case at most other universities. The scale of the challenge here is greater for those universities with a large STEM element.

Within the ‘Addressing the Gender Pay Gap’ section, you will be able to see a range of activity occurring to address the gender imbalance across grades at the University.

Our Gender Pay Gap data as of 31st March 2024

47% of our staff are men and 53% are women.

Our gender pay data has improved from 2023

Mean gender pay gap 

The mean gender pay gap is 16.69% which is a reduction from 17.04% in 2023

Median gender pay gap

The median gender pay gap is 19.20% which is an increase from 16.56% in 2023 (but still lower than 25.43% in 2022)

The proportion of women in each pay quarter

At Loughborough University, women occupy 38.7% of the highest paid jobs (increase of 1%) and 61.8% of the lowest paid jobs (decrease of 1%).

Bonus pay

Mean bonus pay

The mean bonus pay gap is 0.54% which is a reduction from 26.68% in 2023

Median bonus pay

The median bonus pay gap is 0.00% which is a reduction from 20.00% in 2023

The proportion of males and females receiving a bonus

The proportion of males receiving a bonus is 14% and the proportion of females receiving a bonus is 17%

Addressing the Gender Pay Gap

Our Human Resources Vision and Purpose outlines the University’s commitment to being an equitable and inclusive employer. University plans support the drive to increase the diversity of the workforce, including increasing the number of women in senior, academic, management and leadership roles.

Find out what we are doing to reduce the gender pay gap