Equal Pay

At the University of Stirling, we believe that staff should receive equal pay for work of the same or equivalent value, irrespective of gender or any other protected characteristic defined in the Equality Act 2010.

University Approach to Equal Pay

The University operates a transparent pay structure which is underpinned by an objective job evaluation scheme that assesses, systematically, the relative requirements of various roles across the University.  Additionally, work has been undertaken to harmonise terms and conditions across different contract types, and to ensure that all aspects of the University reward systems are transparent.

Partnership working with recognised trade unions has informed the development and implementation of all processes, procedures and practices.  The University Equality Impact Assessment approach has enabled the identification of any potentially discriminative impact and associated actions. 

The University’s objectives in relation to equal pay are:

  1. to eliminate any unfair, unjust or unlawful practices that impact on pay; 
  2. to take appropriate action to address any unwarranted discrepancies that are discovered.

To ensure that these objectives are met the University has established the following practices.

  • Regular undertaking of gender pay reviews and associated action plans to inform leadership approaches and decision-making.
  • Ongoing monitoring and review of pay and reward practices, with focus on fairness and transparency.
  • Undertaking of Equality Impact Assessment on all pay and reward policy and practice developments.
  • Provision of training and guidance for those staff directly involved in decision-making related to pay and reward including recruitment, retention and job evaluation.
  • Consultation with recognised trade unions and other staff representative groups.
  • Transparency and visibility of pay and reward policy and practice.

Pay gap

We’ve seen a narrowing in both our median and mean gender pay gaps since 2020. 

The median pay gap has narrowed in relative terms, by over 40% from 18.61% to 10.89% from 2020 to 2024. The average pay of female staff at the University has increased between 2022 and 2024 by over 10%. 

Since 2020, an extensive amount of work has been undertaken to support the development, promotion and appointment of female staff to senior roles at the University, including continued investment in the Aurora programme and other dedicated development opportunities specifically for females. Targeted reviews have been carried out to understand groups of staff where pay gaps exist, and where they have not been able to be justified, remedial action has been taken. 

In ten years, the number of female staff applying for and successfully reaching promotion has tripled.

View our Gender Pay Gap 2025 report.

At August 2024, the mean ethnicity pay gap between our white staff and non-white staff is 6.23%, while median pay between the two groups is equal.

This may be due to a high proportion of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic staff in mid-level grades (6 and 7).

We have a significant proportion of staff, 6%, where we don’t know their ethnicity, either because it has not been updated, or the individuals have actively told us they do not want to share the information.  In particular, the ethnicity of 20% of our senior staff is unknown. One of our targets is to reduce our unknown percentages to 5% of staff, by 2028.

We understand that a result of increased disclosure may be that the pay gap does not narrow alongside that, however it will give us a greater understanding of these populations of staff. 

The mean and median disability pay gaps in August 2024 are 5.84% and 5.59% respectively. Again, these gaps exist alongside a significant proportion of staff who have not disclosed a disability, 11%, and again with the target to reduce to 5% by 2028.   

Further examination of gender, ethnicity and disability trends, including intersectionality within these groups, will inform strategies for narrowing the gap and increased representation at higher grades across academic and professional staff.