Gender pay gap: progress and ongoing commitment

Last updated 22 April 2025

Our gender pay gap results measured in April 2024, and published on the Gender Pay Gap Service website, found our gender pay gap is at its lowest levels since pay reporting was introduced in 2017/18.

The median gender pay gap is -0.65% for April 2024, compared to 0% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2021. This is the difference between the hourly pay of the man and the woman in the middle of a list of hourly pay ordered from highest to lowest paid.

The mean gender pay gap was 4.65% in April 2024, which is a decrease of 1.85% on the previous year and an 11.5% reduction from 2021. This figure is the difference between the average hourly pay of all the men and women working at the British Red Cross. 

We are very pleased to see a continual reduction in our mean gender pay gap. This is due to a number of initiatives we have introduced in recent years including a focus on career development and equitable recruitment to support female staff to grow their careers at the British Red Cross.

We have also continued to invest in our pay strategy across the organisation, focusing on achieving parity within teams and against the market, particularly for our lower paid roles.

Constantly reassessing the pay gap

Although our gender pay gap is lower than many organisations, there can be no room for complacency.

We believe that we have a humanitarian, ethical and legal responsibility to celebrate and champion equality and diversity. Only by doing this can we truly embody our fundamental principles and values.

Ethnicity pay reporting

We began reporting on our ethnicity pay gap voluntarily in 2023. Last year, we expanded our measures from our initial research to fully replicate the measures used for other pay gap reporting.

Our ethnicity pay gap continues to decrease overall. In April 2024, our overall mean pay gap was 0.63%, with some staff from minoritised ethnic groups paid more than those who are white because of their seniority. Our overall median pay gap is -10.06%.

We continue to drive initiatives to ensure our recruiting practices and career development are fair, inclusive and anti-racist.

Reporting methods

Our pay gap figures are reported as both median and mean numbers.

Medians give us a sense of the ‘typical’ situation as they are not distorted by very high or low hourly pay. However, they could fail to show where any gender pay gap issues might be most pronounced in the lowest paid or highest paid employees.

Mean averages place the same value on every number they use, giving a good overall indication of the gender pay gap. But very high or low hourly pay can ‘dominate’ and distort the figure.