Gender pay gap reporting begins

Gender pay gap reporting begins

Gender Pay Gap Reporting Begins

Private and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees have begun publishing mandatory gender pay gap data on the government website, which can be found here. The published data includes annual figures for both the mean and median gender pay gaps for hourly rates of pay and bonuses, the proportion of men and women receiving bonuses and the number of men and women within each salary quartile.

Currently only seven employers have published this data, although employers do have until April 2018 to do so. We would recommend including a link to the company’s full gender pay gap report on its website and to include a detailed narrative to explain and contextualise the figures. 

The current published data indicates some potential problems with this reporting, including the fact that the employer is responsible for selecting which sector their business falls within. The intention is that quick and easy comparisons of the data within each sector should be possible. However, two of these seven employers have left their sector blank, suggesting confusion where employers do not fit neatly into a specified category. This in turn will affect the reliability of any comparisons made within sectors. There are also no independent checks on whether employers have carried out the required calculations correctly, potentially making some of the data unreliable.

Employers have until April 2018 to report their gender pay gap figures. However, in the meantime, it is important for employers to consider their reporting obligations as early as possible, appoint persons responsible for compliance with this obligation, familiarise themselves with the calculations required, consider how to address any gender pay gaps that are revealed by this data and work on any narrative to accompany this information.

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