Gender, Ethnicity and Disability Pay Gaps

Progress on the Gender Pay Gap

We continue to make steady progress in reducing our gender pay gap, in line with our statutory reporting duties and our institutional priorities.

Our mean gender pay gap has reduced to 12.1%, and the median gap has reduced to 8.89%, both in favour of men.

We have no substantial evidence of unequal pay for equal work, except at Grade 11, where we had a mean gap of 7.23%.

These notable improvements are largely attributed to actions we are taking to reduce our GPG and the implementation of Essex Hours, which enhanced the method of issuing engagements for Assistant Lecturers and Graduate Laboratory Assistants and other staff groups who work variable hours across the year.

Recruitment levels for women at Grades 1-4 fell sharply, reducing their overall representation in these grades.  Appointment levels of women at Grades 5-8 and 9-11 continue to exceed their population share with 46.47% of women in grades 9-11 contributing positively influencing our GPG.

Bonus Pay Gap

Only contractual bonuses and Long Service Awards were paid during the reporting period increasing our bonus pay gap to 30.87% in favour of men.  These figures are driven by very small numbers of staff receiving a bonus therefore not a cause for concern. 

Ethnicity Pay Gap

Our mean ethnicity pay gap is 0.72% in favour of White staff, while the median gap is 2.99% in favour of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff.

Disability Pay Gap

Our mean disability pay gap has increased to 7.62% in favour of staff with a declared disability.

With improved disclosure rates, disability non disclosure reduced sharply from 56.24% to 1.27%, highlighting how important it is for staff to share their equality data.

For more details please see our full Gender Pay Gap Report for 2026 (.pdf).