Gender Pay Gap

Our gender pay gap

We have a legal duty to report our gender pay gap information every year - and we welcome this opportunity to be open and transparent.

Gender pay reporting helps us assess the diversity of the organisation, evaluate our progress and implement steps on how we can improve it.

Our April 2023 mean and median pay gaps have slightly increased compared to April 2022’s figures. Our mean (average) gender pay is 8.15 per cent in 2023, compared to 7.53 per cent in 2022, and our median (middle) gender pay is 7.29 per cent in 2023, compared to 3.6 per cent in 2022. This means that on average our female colleagues are paid 8.15 per cent less than their male colleagues.

Our chief executive, Matt Stringer on our Gender Pay Gap Report

We've published RNIB’s Gender Pay Gap Report 2023 and welcome this opportunity to hold us to account and to ensure we’re always striving to do better.

We’re deeply committed to accessibility, diversity and inclusion (ADI) and we understand that having a workforce with diverse experience, abilities and backgrounds, coupled with a culture of inclusion, will benefit the organisation, as well our community, customers and service-users.

RNIB strives to be an employer of choice ensuring it attracts and retains the best people possible, who can then achieve their highest potential with us. We’re committed to ensuring all our staff have opportunities to develop and thrive, make an impact, and be recognised for doing so.

How we work out our gender pay gap

There’s a UK government requirement for all companies with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap data. The 2023 gender pay figures are based on data available on our reporting date, 5 April 2023.

The gender pay gap is different from equal pay, which formed part of the 2010 Equality Act. The act prohibits discrimination on grounds of race and gender and other protected characteristics and involves females and males or White and ethnic minority employees being paid the same for like/similar work.

The gender pay gap is the difference in average pay between all females and males regardless of the work they perform.

We must report both the mean and median pay gaps. The median pay gap usually gives a better representation of the experience of the ‘typical’ employee as it’s the difference between the midpoint ranges of earnings of all male and female employees. But it doesn’t necessarily reflect the pay of the top earning employees. There are fewer women in the higher-paying roles at RNIB, and the mean pay gap is better able to reflect this as it’s the difference between average hourly earnings of all male and female employees and is often why the mean pay gap is higher than the median.

How we’re addressing our gender pay gap

Our gender pay gap continues to be driven by the overall shape and distribution of male and female staff across the charity in different roles.

There’s already valuable activity taking place as we strive to close our gender pay gap:

• Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion strategy, which will set the bar for how ADI is rolled out across the organisation
• Flexible working policies from day one of employment for all new recruits, to help those with caring responsibilities and to enable working families to remain employed in roles that reflect their skills
• Staff networks, training and policies around ADI including a Women’s Network and menopause policy
• Inclusive recruitment and selection process and salary review ensure we can attract and retain the best talent to help us achieve our vision. This includes:
  • Removing potential gender-coded language on job adverts to help us attract a diverse range of candidates to the organisation
  • Anonymised job applications to removing any bias from the shortlisting process
  • Salaries clearly stated on all job adverts, so these are set long before the candidate is offered a role.

Next steps to further reduce the gender pay gap

Following the publication of this report, we’ll continue to explore and interrogate our data in more detail, as well as engaging with colleagues across the charity so we fully understand the reasons for the gap. This will enable us to identify key drivers in specific areas and opportunities to help reduce our pay gap at a faster pace and to continue to build a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Given recent recruitment activity, we’re already optimistic that it’s heading in the right direction.