Our University Pay Gaps 2025
27 Mar 2026
Our Manchester 2035 strategy sets a clear ambition for us to be the great civic university for the 21st century, where equity, inclusion and social responsibility are fundamental to achieving our strategic foundations and leaps
Today we are publishing our annual pay gaps report, which shows our latest gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation pay gaps as at 31 March 2025.
We are legally required to publish a gender pay gap report, but we choose to go further. We also voluntarily report on ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation, reflecting our commitment to being transparent and to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion.
Reporting on pay gaps is important as they show differences in average pay between groups across the whole university and highlight where representation or progression may not be equal.
Our 2025 pay gaps overview:
We have made some progress in reducing some of our pay gaps, particularly with the mean pay gaps for gender and ethnicity. However, others, particularly the median pay gaps have widened which shows we still have more to do to improve representation at all levels of the University. You can read more in the report about why we have seen some shifts but underrepresentation of women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues, disabled colleagues and LGB+ colleagues in the highest university grades remains the key driver behind our pay gaps.
- Gender: Mean gap 12.4% (↓ from 15.5%); median 10.8% (↑ from 9.8%);
- Ethnicity: Mean gap 15.7% (↓ from 19.9%); median 14.4% (↑ from 12.2%);
- Disability: Mean gap 12.7% (↑ from 11.1%); median 8.6% (↑ from 6.0%);
- Sexual Orientation: Mean gap 12.9% (↑ from 12.3%); median 8.5% (↑ from 7.6%);
- Bonus gaps remain variable because only a small number of bonuses are awarded – this means our bonus gaps can change quite noticeably.
This year, we are not reporting on religion-based pay gaps, as the outcomes are not sufficiently meaningful due to challenges to identify an appropriate benchmark group for robust comparison.
What are we doing about pay gaps?
Improving representation and reducing our pay gaps remains a core commitment within our new EDI Framework, being published later this year and bringing together actions into a single, coherent programme. While we have made positive progress in some areas, our current position does not reflect the level of equity and inclusion we aspire to. This work is also integral to achieving our strategy to 2035, reinforcing our commitment to creating a fair, inclusive and high‑performing environment where all colleagues can thrive.
What about equal pay?
Pay gaps don’t tell us whether colleagues are being paid fairly for the same level of work- that’s the purpose of equal pay. To provide assurance on this, we will be completing a full Equal Pay Audit this year with results available in Autumn 2026.
Pay Gaps explained
Questions? Please contact equalityanddiversity@manchester.ac.uk