Gender and ethnicity pay gap reports
Here you can find our current pay gap figures and links to all our past reports.
Why we’re publishing this data
Gender pay gap legislation was introduced in April 2017, requiring UK employers with 250 employees or more to publish data each year. Cancer Research Horizons hit this headcount during the 2022/23 financial year and started publishing data from that point. While it’s not a legal requirement, we welcome the opportunity to share our ethnicity pay gap data as well.
This year we have published our pay gap data in a combined report with Cancer Research UK.
Equal pay versus pay gaps
Equal pay means paying people the same for like-for-like work and it has been a legal requirement for over 50 years. We’re confident that we do this and have robust frameworks and guidelines that are applied consistently to ensure that pay is set fairly for similar roles across the charity. Gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting shows the difference in average pay between female and male employees, and white and ethnic minority employees.
Our gender pay gap
As of 5 April 2024, our mean gender pay gap was 13.1% in favour of men, down from 14.3% in 2023. Our median gender pay gap was 7.6% in favour of men, down from 8.6% in 2023. While it is encouraging to see an improvement since last year, these gaps are higher than we wish them to be.
Both gaps are driven by the overall distribution of women and men across the organisation. Cancer Research Horizons has an overall gender split of 60% women and 40% men. However, in some senior management grades, we employ proportionately more men than women, which impacts our gender pay gap.
Our ethnicity pay gap
Our mean ethnicity pay gap was 15.7% in favour of white staff, up from 11.3% in 2023. Our median ethnicity pay gap was 15.1% in favour of white staff, down from 15.8% in 2023. This data is based on the 87% of Cancer Research Horizons staff that have disclosed their ethnicity data, with 17% of respondents from an ethnic minority background.
As with our gender pay gaps, these are higher than we would like, especially as the mean gap has increased since the previous report. Our ethnicity pay gap is driven by our overall ethnicity mix in different parts of the organisation. We employ proportionately more ethnic minority staff in lower paid roles, and fewer in higher paid roles than our ethnicity distribution overall, which impacts our ethnicity pay gap.
How we’re addressing these gaps
As this is only the second year we’ve reported our gender and ethnicity pay gaps, we still have work to do to understand what’s driving these gaps. We'll continue to ensure that our staff are paid equal pay for equal work and to also run competitive processes where the best candidates are appointed. We’ll also interrogate our data and engage with staff to identify areas where we could make more targeted interventions.