Gender Pay Gap Reports
We are committed to fostering an inclusive culture where employees are supported to reach their full potential and are valued for their differences in thought, background, experience and perspective. We welcome the additional insight that gender pay disclosure provides and use this responsibility as part of our ambition to be a fair and inclusive place to work.
Gender Pay Gap Report 2024
Introduction
UK employers with more than 250 employees are required by law to publish their annual gender pay gap data. This report covers employees of Genome Research Limited which is the legal entity comprising Wellcome Sanger Institute and Connecting Science. We are frequently known as Wellcome Sanger Institute and therefore will use this name throughout our report.
On the 5th of April 2024, we had 1264 employees (54% female; 46% male).
The gender pay gap is a measure that shows the difference between the average pay of men and women in an organisation, regardless of the level or type of work carried out. The Wellcome Sanger Institute is committed to increasing gender pay transparency and the gender pay gap is one of many measures we use to identify and address equality issues in our organisation.
Gender pay gap data are not the same as equal pay data. Equal pay audits compare pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs or equal work. While not a legal requirement, Wellcome Sanger Institute is committed to producing Equal Pay Audits in future to ensure a fairer and inclusive workplace.
This report sets out the gender pay gap figures at Wellcome Sanger Institute on the 5th of April 2024. The figures have been calculated using the methodology stipulated by UK legislation:
- percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter
- mean (average) gender pay gap using hourly pay
- median gender pay gap using hourly pay
- percentage of men and women receiving bonus pay
- mean (average) gender pay gap using bonus pay
- median gender pay gap using bonus pay
We also provide year-on-year comparisons to show our progress.
Wellcome Sanger Institute gender pay gap
In 2024, our mean gender pay gap was 7.21% and our median gender pay gap was 4.38%.
Mean and median gender pay gaps comparison (2023-2024)
| 2023 | 2024 | In 2024 our gender pay gap has become | |
| Mean gender pay gap | 9.71% | 7.21% | 2.5% narrower |
| Median gender pay gap | 6.71% | 4.38% | 2.33% narrower |
The results from this year’s Gender Pay Gap Report demonstrate that our gender pay gap has narrowed in favour of women and is significantly below the UK average median of 13.11%, as reported by the Office for National Statistics, 2024. The median is considered the more reliable measure of gender pay gap data.
Vertical segregation: Deeper analysis of our figures tells us that our gender pay gap largely arises due to clustering of men and women in certain job families – for example, we see higher proportions of men in IT and software development roles, which are higher paid (the market also tends to command a premium salary for these roles compared to other roles at the same grade). We will look at this in more detail as part of our gender pay actions outlined below.
Gender balance of each pay quartile 2024
| Pay quartile | % women | % men |
| Lower Quartile | 59.2%
-0.3% from 2023 (59.5%) |
40.8%
+0.3% from 2023 (40.5%) |
| Lower Middle Quartile | 57.0%
-3.5% from 2023 (60.5%) |
43.0%
+3.5% from 2023 (39.5%) |
| Upper Middle Quartile | 47.2%
-6.8% from 2023 (54.0%) |
52.8%
+6.8% from 2023 (46.0%) |
| Upper Quartile | 53.8%
+8.8% from 2023 (45.0%) |
46.2%
-8.8% from 2023 (55.0%) |
Quartile distribution: The lower quartiles have the greatest proportion of women compared to men, where there are higher percentages of women in lower paid roles such as Research Assistant. The biggest positive change we can see is the increase of the representation of women by 8.8% into the Upper Quartile. We intend to analyse this further (see actions below) to understand whether this is the result of career progression, and if so, where we can identify good practice in this area.
Bonus gender pay gap comparison (2023-2024)
| 2023 | 2024 | In 2024 our bonus pay gap has become | |
| Mean bonus gender pay gap | 4.9% | 20.91% | 16.01% wider in favour of men |
| Median bonus gender pay gap | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Bonus pay: The Wellcome Sanger Institute does not operate a formal bonus scheme. Most bonus payments included in its gender bonus pay data on the 5th of April 2024 relate to non-consolidated awards that were paid when an employee reached the maximum of the pay range as part of the organisation’s annual pay review. We provide clarity to our employees and managers on the types of activities and achievements that may be eligible for an occasional bonus and have also introduced moderation of all proposed bonuses at senior level to ensure greater consistency and equity.
How we are addressing our pay gaps
Despite being below national average, we recognise that we still have work to do to close the gender pay gap. This involves aiming to understand the structural reasons behind it so that we can take action.
In 2024 we:
- Continued to offer our Talented Women’s Programme (3 cohorts were run in the period this report covers) for women in senior roles.
- Introduced tailored coaching for maternity leave returners to enable a smoother and supported transition back to work.
- Maintained our position in the top 4 Research Institutes and universities in the Working Families benchmark due to our enhanced family-friendly policies.
- Continued to offer a Returner’s Grant, which is a flexible scheme for researchers to access after a period of maternity/shared parental/adoption leave, to access a variety of support or career development activity.
- Continued to offer a Carer’s Grant to cover caring expenses for colleagues when participating in off-site events and launched a Care Concierge service to support colleagues with caring responsibilities (noting the Census of England and Wales found 59% of unpaid carers are women).
- Developed Menopause Guidelines and extended our private health care provision to cover related treatment to recognise and support experiences of menopause at work.
- Established a staff Gender Equity Network, which serves as a platform for women and supporting allies, amplifying women’s voices and experiences within the organisation.
- Introduced a moderation process for all senior bonuses to ensure greater consistency and equity.
- Led a recruitment process for a Head of Culture Development to lead a Culture Plan incorporating equality, diversity and inclusion and a focus on gender equality, and who started in early 2025.
What action we will take
We will continue to work closely with leadership and staff across the organisation to develop actions and initiatives that address our gender pay gap. In 2025 we will:
- Embed pay gap actions and development of gender equality work, including ‘Women at Sanger’ and Athena Swan, into our Culture Plan, led by the new Head of Culture Development.
- Apply to renew our Silver Athena Swan award by January 2027, with a renewed focus and commitment to implement our Action Plan and sponsor gender equality at senior levels.
- Invest in training and awareness around the ‘Authority Gap’ to address negative bias around women’s authority at work, including tailored workshops to encourage male allyship.
- Investigate further the increase of the representation of women by 8.8% into the Upper Quartile to understand whether this is the result of career progression and if so, where we can identify good practice in this area to replicate.
- Investigate why our mean bonus pay gap has widened and apply required actions to reduce this.
- Strengthen support for our Gender Equity Network through clearer governance and partnership.
- Continue to focus on diversifying teams and groups to ensure women are fairly represented and ensuring inclusive practice is followed.
- Take positive action to encourage applications from women where necessary, including IT and software development roles where more men are employed in higher paid roles.
- Enhance statutory neonatal pay provision and committing to the Employer with Heart charter.
- Introduce specific policies and support packages for those on fertility journeys and/or who have experienced pregnancy, baby or child loss, meaning they can return and continue to work in a supportive environment.
- Evolve our menopause support and action planning ahead of statutory legislation.
- Develop greater insight and evidence which we can use to improve gender equality. This means further embedding our HR systems strategy to scrutinise real-time high-quality people data. This will facilitate an agile approach to diversity analysis and reporting across our pay grades. We will also undertake a Culture Pulse Survey and disaggregate to understand women’s experiences better and take action to address issues.
- Begin equal pay analysis and reporting.
- Implement a standardised equality impact assessment framework which will help mitigate any potential impacts of policies, practices and decisions on minoritised groups (including women).
Statement
The Wellcome Sanger Institute is committed to addressing our gender pay gap through evidence-based actions that will be integrated across our organisation and embedded in our strategy. We will continue to monitor and review these actions to drive an inclusive culture at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, enabling progression of women to reduce gender pay gaps.
Simon Moore (Chief Operating Officer)
Dr Frances Morton (Head of Culture Development)
Download our Gender Pay Gap Reports
Current Gender Pay Gap Report
Previous Gender Pay Gap Reports
You can view and download our previous Gender Pay Reports below: