Wellcome’s pay gap data 2022

On 5 April 2022, Wellcome had a gender gap in median pay of 15.4%. This is up from 13.2% in 2021 and exceeds the UK national average of 14.9% in 2022, which is reported by the Office for National Statistics. 

In the six years we have been reporting this data there has been an overall steady decline in our median gender pay gap, but this has been slower than we would like.

We remain committed to making long-term changes that will make Wellcome a more diverse and inclusive employer.

• Read Wellcome’s gender pay gap report 2022

For this report we categorise employee ethnicity as either ethnic minority or White, which best reflects the data we hold. We know there are limitations to these categories and expect our approach to collecting and reporting the data to change over time. 

On 5 April 2022, the median pay for White employees was higher than for ethnic minority employees. This means Wellcome had an ethnicity gap in median pay of 5.6%.

Our median ethnicity pay gap has increased by 1% since 2021.

There are limitations to this data that can affect interpretation and comparison as about 18% of the organisation had not supplied ethnicity data when this snapshot was taken. Disclosure of ethnicity data has increased since April 2022 and we hope to see more accurate representation in 2023.

The data we do have confirms there is more to do to support the recruitment, retention and progress of people of colour at Wellcome, especially at senior levels. 

A report published in August 2022 that we commissioned to evaluate our work to become an anti-racist organisation found that we have fallen short of our commitments. 

The evaluation recommended a set of actions for Wellcome to deliver as part of a wider programme of anti-racism work. Many of these actions will contribute towards closing our ethnicity pay gap.

• Read Wellcome’s ethnicity pay gap report 2022

We report median pay for gender and ethnicity because this is the preferred measure used by the Office for National Statistics and is less affected by extreme outliers. 

It is likely our median gender and ethnicity pay gaps both increased this year because of a major organisational re-design in 2021 that led to an unusual volume of changes. For both gender and ethnicity pay gaps, the reports also show our mean pay gaps have decreased.  

What’s clear from both reports is that we have more to do to support career progression and pay for women and people of colour. 

To address this, we took the following actions in 2022:

• introduced new benefits relating to fertility, menopause and other key life milestones, that will typically support women’s career progression
• began reviewing our policies, including family and absence polices 
• improved our process for analysing promotions and exit interview data to improve decision making and better understand retention
• developed a management development programme for people managers, including a module on equity, diversity and inclusion with good practice and anti-racism embedded throughout
• completed an evaluation of our anti-racism programme and published the findings
• developed and launched an anti-racism programme of learning for all staff
• introduced an equity, diversity and inclusion competency as part of our recruitment process for new hires
• added diversity data collection to our on-boarding process for new hires
• worked to understand and define a relevant approach to career frameworks across Wellcome. 

And our plans for 2023 include:

• continuing to focus on senior recruitment
• hiring for a new role of Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
• creating an inclusive recruitment policy and guidance to include clear transparent and equitable hiring criteria
• reviewing our organisational approach to flexible working
• delivering anti-racism training to all staff
• developing inclusive career frameworks to drive transparency and fairness in the way we promote and develop people, including targeted mentoring and support for people of colour at Wellcome.