OUP makes a start on its gender pay gap

The latest gender pay gap report released by Oxford University Press shows a small lessening of its median pay gap, down just under 1% to 12.5% in the year to March 2019.

The previous year its median pay gap in favour of men had stood at 13.4%.

OUP's mean pay gap fell at a similar level, to 22.1% (23.1% in the year before).

The publisher said the improvement in the gender pay gap figure resulted from the fact that women are now paid more than men in the lower, lower middle and upper middle quartiles; however the pay gap in the upper quartile has remained broadly the same. "Improvements in this area have been offset by OUP recruiting more technologists—a sector that tends to be more male dominated," OUP said.

To minimise the pay gap, OUP has a number of initiatives in place, including mentoring opportunities for women, leadership and management training, unconscious bias training for hiring managers, blind screening of candidates for senior roles, and running networks and events to inspire and support women in career development.

Group HR director Lesley Sommerville said: “I‚Äôm delighted that our UK gender pay gap is decreasing. Although we still have more work to do, it‚Äôs encouraging to see that the steps we have taken to support women in the workplace have already made a positive difference. We have even more initiatives and activities in the pipeline to help us reduce our pay gap further in the future.”

OUP has more than 6,000 employees across the world, with approximately one-third based in the UK.