RPS will publish data showing gender pay gap

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has announced that it will publish its gender pay gap, despite having fewer than 250 employees and not being legally required to do so.

Helen Gray, head of people at the RPS, said the pay gap will be published in April 2019 for the previous financial year.

Gray described the RPS’s current gender pay gap as “below the national average”, but added that “we cannot rest on our laurels: there is work to be done”.

She added that women are well-represented at senior level at the RPS and explained that the largest difference in gender pay is seen in the lowest-paid quartile where there is a comparatively greater proportion of female staff: “We are reviewing why that is: why don’t those roles appeal to men?”

The Society has undertaken an internal salary audit to address discrepancies in pay, Gray said, and is also reviewing its recruitment process.

“We have heard from our employees that women are more reluctant to ask for a pay rise, so we are reviewing our procedures to make the process of requesting a pay review standard across the board.”

Gray said that she “would like to see an improvement” by April 2019.

“Paul Bennett, chief executive of the RPS, has said that our [staff] are as big a priority as our members,” she continued. “That has helped to push this forward. The recent changes to the executive team structure have allowed us to focus more on the organisation’s culture.” The executive team underwent a restructure in July 2018 and saw the creation of new directorates, including the directorates of pharmacy and member experience; education and innovation and enterprise. 

Gray also said that members of the RPS executive team have now had unconscious bias training, and this will be rolled out to management next year.

In the UK, the mean gender pay gap is 14.1% and the median gender pay gap is 9.1% for full-time workers.