From April 2017 a new law was introduced making it mandatory for all employers with over 250 employees to report annually on their gender pay gap. The report must be published on the Company’s website and also submitted to a Government website.
Employers will be required to compute and report on the difference in pay between ‘relevant’ male and female employees on an annual basis using data over a specific pay period starting from 5 April 2017. Employers then have 12 months beginning to publish the information – i.e. the first report will be due no later than 4 April 2018.
The information that employers must report on includes differences in mean and median hourly pay and bonuses between men and women, as well as the proportion of women in each pay quartile within the organisation.
Acas have published useful guidance and fact sheets on this topic to assist employers in complying with their gender pay gap reporting obligations, including the “top ten myths” of gender reporting. There is also a useful template for gender pay reporting.
Next steps
We recommend gathering relevant data and undertaking the assessment as soon as possible to enable remedial action to be taken where required.
Employers should be aware that:
- a wider definition of employee is used for gender pay gap reporting than is used in the Equality Act (so take care when deciding who should be included in the review)
- six calculations will be required
- the results must be confirmed by an appropriate senior person within an organisation and published on its website and a government website.
Employers might also consider publishing a narrative to explain an analysis of any gap or whether more detailed metrics should be published.
As an employer you may wish to look beyond mere compliance with the reporting regulations and work towards understanding the causes of any gaps and any measures to address them.
