Why we’re publishing this data
Gender pay gap legislation was introduced in April 2017, requiring UK employers with 250 employees or more to publish data each year. Cancer Research Horizons met the threshold in 2022 (reporting year) and has reported since that date. While it’s not a legal requirement, we welcome the opportunity to share our ethnicity pay gap data as well.
We now publish our pay gap data in a combined report with Cancer Research UK. You can read more about the reasons for the pay gaps and about our work on inclusion and diversity.
Equal pay versus pay gaps
Equal pay means paying people the same for like-for-like work. It has been a legal requirement for over 50 years.
We’re confident that we do this and have robust frameworks and guidelines that are applied consistently to ensure pay is set fairly for similar roles across the charity.
Gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting shows the difference in average pay between female and male employees, and White and ethnic minority employees, across all roles.
Our gender pay gap
As of 5 April 2025, our mean gender pay gap was 18.7% in favour of men, widening from 13.1% in 2024. Our median gender pay gap was 9% in favour of men, widening from 7.6% in 2024.
We’re disappointed that our gender pay gap measures have widened due to the recruitment of more male staff than female staff into higher-grade roles. Cancer Research Horizons has 282 eligible staff who are included in the pay gap calculations. Small pay or demographic fluctuations can have an impact on the overall measures in smaller organisations.
Our ethnicity pay gap
As of 5 April 2025, our mean ethnicity pay gap was 7.6% in favour of white staff, narrowing from 15.7% in 2024. Our median ethnicity pay gap was 0.2% in favour of ethnic minority staff, narrowing from 15.1% in favour of white staff in 2024.
The data is based on the 88% of Cancer Research Horizons staff that disclosed their ethnicity data, with 21% of respondents from an ethnic minority background.
We’re pleased that our ethnicity pay gap measures have narrowed. The proportion of ethnic minority colleagues increased in the upper, upper middle and lower middle pay quartiles and fractionally reduced in our lower quartile, leading to the narrowing gaps.
How we’re addressing these gaps
We'll continue to ensure that our staff are paid equal pay for equal work and continue to run merit based competitive processes where the best candidates are appointed.
Working alongside Cancer Research UK, we’ll also maintain our shared commitment to our top leadership levels being a minimum of 50% women and 12% from an ethnic minority background and work to increase the proportion of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds to 19% by 2027.