Publishing the data is part of its “ambitious plan” to put inclusion and diversity at the heart of the way it champions the pharmacy profession, the RPS said last week (June 19).

In April, the RPS’s median pay gap between white and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees was 12%, while its gender pay gap was 15%.

Although the RPS’s ethnicity pay gap is below the 22% White/BAME pay gap in London, where most of its employees are based, this “doesn’t mean we accept our current pay gap as a good position to be in,” it said.

“This is our first report and we’ll use it as a baseline as we take action to reduce our pay gap.”

New benchmark

RPS chief executive Paul Bennett said the organisation wants to “become a fairer, more inclusive employer”, and its pay gap work is “part of a bigger transformation for both our people and the profession”.

“I’m pleased that for the first time we now have a benchmark on pay for our BAME employees,” he said.

Both the RPS’s gender and ethnicity pay gaps show there’s “still much work to be done”, Mr Bennett said.

It is “disappointing” that the organisation’s work to reduce its gender pay gap has “yet to make a real difference to our overall results”, he added.

On Monday (June 22), the RPS published its five-year inclusion and diversity strategy.

Racism in pharmacies survey: Share your experiences with C+D

C+D has launched a survey to ask pharmacy teams about their experience of racism in the workplace. To make your voice heard on racism in pharmacies, take the short survey, which launched last week (June 18) and will remain open for two weeks.