The gender pay gap in UK universities 2004/5 to 2019/20

Using UK data supplied by universities, this paper confirms that women academics earn less than men, even after controlling for a range of covariates. Despitenarrowingafter 2004/05, the observed (unconditional)pay gapwas still -0.089 in 2019/20, while the conditional pay gapwas relatively unchanged remaining at around -0.050in 2019/20. The results are consistentwiththe literatureonwhy pay gaps might occur, with the key disparity occurring when women face a higher cost of investmentand statistical discrimination, linked to bias, to achieve promotion. That is, the results presented here suggestthat earnings gaps aresignificantly reducedwhen grade-balanced gender sub-groups are compared, suggesting conditional wage differences are more likely due to bias rather than any inherent differences in (research) productivity