Some of the UK’s biggest veterinary firms have been warned they need to act quickly after new analysis revealed huge pay discrepancies between male and female staff.

Union leaders say figures from the Government’s Gender Pay Gap service are “a mirror on the reality of veterinary sector pay” and have offered their help to instigate change.

But bosses insist they are already working to address the problem and the figures should not be viewed as a comparison of equivalent work.

All employers with a minimum of 250 employees are required to submit gender pay gap reports based on an annual snapshot date.

Submissions for the year 2022-23 showed nearly 80% of reporting firms still pay men more than women, while the overall median pay gap of 9.4% was the same as when mandatory reporting was first introduced for larger companies five years ago.

Gaps in pay

But the figures suggest the problem in the veterinary sector may be much more serious, with four major care providers – the CVS Group, IVC Evidensia, Linneaus and VetPartners – all reporting gaps of 40% or more in median hourly pay.

British Veterinary Union branch chairperson Suzanna Hudson-Cooke said the figures reflected experiences reported by her members and urged the firms to make “swift changes”.

She said: “These four companies employ over half of the veterinary workforce in the UK and this reality offers a mirror on the reality of veterinary sector pay.

“This gender pay gap reflects pay of veterinary surgeons, but also that of veterinary nurses, animal care assistants, receptionists and other staff who are often paid particularly poorly.”

Her comments echoed the challenge issued by BVA president Malcolm Morley, who urged the profession to “get its house in order on this issue”.

‘Historical factors’

But VetPartners, whose own report recorded an overall median gender pay gap of 42.8%, said that was down nearly 5% since 2020 and argued the issue was based on “historical factors”.

The firm added: “Our data shows the steps taken to reduce the gap are working. We are seeing movement in our quartiles, with more female colleagues joining the upper quartile compared to last year and more males joining the lower quartiles.

“However, our statistics are not where we want them to be and, in line with the rest of the profession, we have challenges to address in this area and are focused on doing that.”

CVS said its median gender pay gap for vets of 9.87% in 2022 was much lower than the headline 43.8% and the figure would be even smaller if specific roles were taken into account.

‘Aim to pay same’

A spokesperson added: “In an industry like ours, where there is a significant skew towards female employment within certain roles, we believe it is helpful to look at the pay gap between men and women doing the same or similar jobs.

“For people doing the same job, with the same experience and skills, we aim to pay the same regardless of their gender.”

Elsewhere, Linneaus, which had a 47.2% median hourly pay gap, said: “We are aware of our industry’s gender pay gap. We are committed to gender parity and have introduced measures such as equal family leave which we believe will help to narrow that gap over time.”

IVC, whose reported median gap was 47.6%, said: “We continue to evolve our pay and reward, and last year introduced common standards of pay across all our UK clinics, to help reinforce parity.

“Women are the mainstay of our employees, as they are for the veterinary profession, and we’re committed to the long-term sustained focus required to close the gender pay gap.”

Meanwhile, Medivet, which reported a 45% difference in median hourly pay in 2021-22, had not submitted a report for 2022-23 at the time of going to press. The company declined to comment on the issue when approached by Vet Times.

Need for transparency

But Dr Hudson-Cooke said: “Veterinary employers must be more transparent about their pay structures and must ensure they have the procedures in place to reduce pay inequality, in particular around maternity policies and part time work.

“We would hope that if this survey were to be repeated next year that no veterinary employers will appear on it and we are happy to meet with those companies in the true spirit of partnership working to the benefit of staff, their employers and the animals in their care.”

BVA president Malcolm Morley acknowledged the complexities of the issue, but admitted the figures made “very disappointing reading”.

Meanwhile, VMG president Miles Russell argued that greater support to help women take up leadership positions, including more flexible working and increased encouragement to pursue qualifications to that end, would “really accelerate” progress in tackling the pay problem.

He said: “The profession’s current leaders must continue to learn about the potential barriers to female members of the profession and how they can be overcome in order to enable significant progress on this issue.”