Gender Pay

The gender pay gap legislation was introduced in April 2017, requiring all UK employers with 250 employees or more to publish data about their gender pay gap on the snapshot date of 5th April 20

Gender Pay Reporting involves carrying out six calculations that show the difference between the average earnings of men and women in our organisation; it does not involve publishing individual employees’ data.

We are required to publish the results on our own website and a government website.

We can use these results to assess:

• the levels of gender equality in our workplace
• the balance of male and female employees at different levels
• how effectively talent is being maximised and rewarded

Gender Pay Reporting requires our organisation to make calculations based on employee gender. We establish this by using our existing HR and payroll records.

On the snapshot date the gender split was 85% female and 15% male. A predominately female workforce is reflective of the veterinary industry, where 58% of vets are female and of 96.8% of veterinary nurses are female (Source: RCVS VS surveys, 2019).

Hourly rate of pay 28% (34% in 2021 - Mean) 28% (43% in 2021 - Median) Bonus paid 0% (Mean) 0% (Median)

We are happy to share that female employees are well represented across all of the pay quartiles. 73% of roles are occupied by women in the upper quartile; however, despite this, there is a higher percentage of men in the upper quartile than other quartiles. This is due to more men being in higher paid technical or management roles within the organisation.

Whilst we recognise this significant pay gap, we are very happy to be able to publish the visible progress that has been made in reducing our gender pay gap over the last 12 months. We expect that more women leave the profession before reaching the upper quartile. One relevant factor may be that levels of stress, burnout and compassion fatigue are higher among women than men (source: VetsSurvey 2020).

Our analysis shows that our gender pay gap is also due to a lack of gender diversity in the lower pay quartiles, which includes roles that are predominantly done by women.

Animal Trust strives to be an equal opportunities employer. This means that decisions concerning recruitment, promotion, dismissal or any other aspect of employment will be based on the needs of the business and not any assumptions based on sex, race, age, disability, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, married or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief. Addressing the gender pay gap is an important focus for us.

Reducing our gender pay gap implies either increasing the proportion of men in lower grades or increasing the proportion of women occupying the more senior roles in Animal Trust.

We have implemented actions that will contribute to reducing our pay gap: • Ensuring transparency in promotion, pay and reward processes, whereby we have implemented an internal recruitment policy and pay policies available to all staff • Ensuring our job descriptions are free from bias • Improving working conditions to reduce stress and providing ways to help our employees improve their mental health • Relaunching our apprenticeship offering to ensure it supports our future talent pipeline and creates a diverse workforce for the future that is representative of the populations we serve.

We propose to take further action in 2022 and 2023 to reduce our pay gap: • Redefining options of when and where we work, in order to provide staff with greater flexibility to carry out their role whilst managing their personal commitments at home • Expanding our inclusive approaches to our recruitment and talent management • Work with local communities to give access and opportunity to vacancies and build a sustainable and representative workforce within Animal Trust • Develop line manager capability on recognising unconscious bias through the recruitment process • Review our recruitment processes, language and imagery used to ensure that there is no bias, which may be unconsciously attracting more women for the advertised vacancies across all quartiles • Develop line manager capability on inclusive practices to improve retention • Review our maternity offer to encourage women to return to the profession in leadership roles.

I confirm that Animal Trust’s gender pay gap calculations are accurate and meet the requirements of the Regulations.

**Owen Monie CEO Animal Trust Vets CIC **