Gender pay gap reports

Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive.

In order to achieve this, we need to ensure that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive. We are striving to create a workplace in which all people feel included and valued.

Since publishing our gender pay gap last year, our median gender pay gap has slightly increased to 8.2% from 7.6% which can be attributed to growth in employment of females in our lowest two quartiles.

The mean gender pay gap has decreased to 10.5% and what is particularly encouraging is we have seen a 3% increase in females in the highest paid roles in the organisation.

As explained in the previous report, we have been working to address the gender balance in the Museum, particularly at the leadership level, and are pleased that the data reflects these efforts.

The gender pay gap explained

The gender pay gap shows the differences between average pay between men and women. It is not the same as equal pay. At the Natural History Museum, we pay men and women the same rate for doing the same job. We have a new clear grading system which applies across the whole Museum.

Reporting our gender pay gap

The below information is based on data from our latest pay gap report in April 2025.

Pay difference

The mean pay difference in hourly pay between male and female employees is 10.5% (down from 10.9% in 2024).

The median pay difference in hourly pay between male and female employees is 8.2 % (an increase from 7.6% in 2024).

Only one bonus was paid in the financial year 2024/25 and this was to a male.

Percentage of staff

We examined the percentage of male and female staff and split the data by hourly rates in four equal groups, or quartiles. Quartile 1 shows the lowest hourly rates and quartile 4 shows the highest.

Quartile 1 breakdown:

67.2% Female

32.8% Male

An increase from 66.8% female in 2023/24.

Quartile 2 breakdown:

64.7% Female

35.3% Male

An increase from 64.2% female in 2023/24.

Quartile 3 breakdown:

62.1% Female

37.9% Male

A decease from 65.1% female in 2023/24.

Quartile 4 breakdown:

51.3% Female

48.7% Male

An increase from 48% female in 2023/24.

The gender split across the whole Museum is remains the same as last year at 61% Female, 39% Male.

We are pleased to see our mean gender pay gap reducing, and we are committed to addressing the gender imbalance in the most senior level in the Museum. The most recent appointments to our Executive Board have all been female.

We are proud to be an employer that is committed to hybrid working, maintaining the flexibility of working from home for our staff post- pandemic and feel that this has made a positive contribution to an overall increase of females in the workforce.

Taking action to reduce our gender pay gap

Our 2024-2027 Diversity and Inclusion Workforce Action Plan focuses on all aspects of diversity including gender. This plan has six key objectives which includes a focus on pathways to employment, broadening the diversity of our applicants, and enhancing our management and leadership capabilities.

This work will continue to build on good practice as outlined in our previous reporting including:

• Internal only recruitment targets. As females are disproportionately represented in our lowest pay quartile, we have been concentrating on filling vacancies through internal recruitment wherever possible. This is not only to invest in our own staff but to give people more opportunity to develop their careers in more senior roles within the Museum. For the last three years over 50% of all our vacancies were filled by internal candidates.
• Embedding our new Talent Acquisition programme with a focus on continuing to diversify our candidate pool and removing barriers to joining our workforce
• Expanding our mentoring offer to two cohorts a year, and ensuring this is available to all staff to support with career development
• A further cohort of our aspiring managers programme to upskill our staff in the lowest pay quartile to be able to move up the organisation more quickly when vacancies arise; with additional work-based shadowing opportunities for others in the same pay quartile.
• Continued development of guidance and awareness raising around the impact of women’s health issues in the workplace.

As we move forward we will continue with these all these programmes as well as introduce new initiatives to support women in the workplace. For example this year we are developing specific guidance for carers (knowing that women play a disproportionate role as carers) and we are focusing on building a greater understanding of the impact of women’s health issues in the workplace.