Julia Heaton; Jessica Mayall
March 2012

Gender and the Environmental Science Sector: Salary Guide 2011

Whilst it is illegal for an employee’s gender to affect the salary they receive, there continues to be a disparity between men and women’s pay in the environmental sector. This is part of a national trend across all sectors. The defence for this is often given as being due to men more often holding senior positions attracting higher remuneration. This salary guide therefore aims to compare ‘like-for-like’ as much as possible by comparing men and women’s average salary by sector and position.

How to use this guide
This guide enables you to compare your salary against the average and range for your gender, age, position and sector. Through enabling such comparisons, it is hoped that professionals will be able to make the case for earning a competitive salary for their sector and position.

Salary band
Respondents were asked within which £5,000 salary band their salary fell. Figure 1 enables you to identify where your salary lies compared to other professionals working in the sector. The disparity between men and women’s salaries can be seen, with women featuring more strongly at the lower end of the salary scale compared to men (up to £35,000-39,999).

Salary and age
The difference between men and women’s salaries is often more pronounced amongst later career professionals though differences can be seen throughout. You can compare your salary with men and women of your age using Figure 2 by identifying where you fall in the salary ranges.

Salary and position
Figure 3 enables you to compare your salary with others working at the same level as you in their organisation. You can compare directly with those working in your own sector to determine whether your salary is competitive for your position (see Figure 4 (Consultancy), Figure 5 (Government), Figure 6 (Academia) and Figure 7 (Industry).

Pay gap
The pay gap across all sectors between men and women is shown clearly in Figure 8, and divided by sector in Figure 9. These graphs also demonstrate the differences in representation of men and women in each sector.

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