Insights
Gender Pay Gap: Corporations will soon be legally made to publish the pay gap between male and female employees
Publishing the pay gap between male and female employees will soon be a legal requirement
Our Government will soon be putting into place legislation that seeks to ensure women aren’t paid less than men in the workplace.
The move to tackle pay inequality follows evidence that suggests that while women are better performing academically, once they reach the workforce, this isn’t reflected in their pay packets.
Current figures suggest that 63.6% of girls achieve 5 or more GCSEs at grade A* to C compared to 54.2% of boys, and that 57% is the proportion of first degree graduates that are women.
Subject to parliamentary approval, the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, which set out the detail of the gender pay gap reporting duty, will come into force on 6 April 2017.
This will mean employers with 250 or more employees will be required to publish details of their gender Pay gap and gender Bonus gap. Employers will have 12 months in which to publish the information, meaning that first publication will be required no later than 4 April 2018.
The pay information must be based on data from a snapshot date of 5 April every year, beginning with 5 April 2017.
The Bonus information must be based on the preceding 12-month period, beginning with the 12 months leading up to 5th April 2017. i.e. 5th April 2016.
Under the draft Regulations, employers will be required to publish:
* the difference in mean pay between male and female employees;
* the difference in median pay between male and female employees;
* the difference in mean bonus pay between male and female employees;
* the difference in median bonus pay between male and female employees;
* the proportions of male and female employees who were paid bonus pay; and
* the proportions of male and female employees in each quartile of their pay distribution.
It has been estimated that further bridging the UK gender gap in work has the potential to create an extra £150 billion on top of business as-usual GDP forecasts in 2025.
