UK Gender Pay Gap
What is the Gender Pay Gap?
The gender pay gap is an equality degree that indicates the difference in average earnings between women and men.
The UK gender pay gap is at its lowest stage ever – just over 18 percent.
The gender pay gap does not show variations in pay for similar jobs. Unequal pay for women and men has been unlawful for 45 years.
What are the reasons of the Gender Pay Gap?
The causes of the gender pay gap are complex and overlapping:
• A higher percentage of women choose occupations that provide much less financial praise (e.g. administration). Many high paying sectors are disproportionately made from male workers (e.g. information and communications technology).
• A much higher proportion of women work part-time, and part-time workers earn less than their full-time counterparts on average.
• Women are still much less likely to development their career ladder into high paying senior roles.
What is Government doing about the Gender Pay Gap?
The government is taking action through:
• Requiring large employers, including the public sector, to publish their gender pay gap and gender bonus gap;
• Offering 30 hours of free childcare for working families with 3 and 4 year -olds
• Encouraging girls to keep in mind a much wider range of careers, including in those higher paying sectors traditionally dominated by men.
The government has already:
• Extended the right to request flexible working to all employees
• Introduced shared parental leave
• Commissioned a review to look at how we can dispose of the obstacles stopping women getting to the pinnacle of their careers.
How to address the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap reporting legislation does not come into force until 6 April 2017. Employers may have to collect gender pay gap data from as early as April 2016. HR professionals can use this timeline to get ready for their reporting obligations.
Check that your organisation collects the data needed to conduct gender pay gap reporting. Information must be collected on employees as defined under s.83 of the Equality Act 2010, which includes apprentices and workers who have a contract personally to do work.
Collecting data can be useful for internal analysis of gender pay gap. For example, it may be useful to gather figures on the gender profile of your organisation, bonus trends across your organisation, or your organisation’s historical gender data in order to understand gender pay gap results.
Why not consider conducting a test gender pay gap analysis based on data from prior years. This will help confirm that your organisation is ready to meet regulatory requirements. It will also allow your organisation to anticipate gender pay gap results and begin to address any potential concerns.
How to address the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap reporting legislation does not come into force until 6 April 2017. Employers may have to collect gender pay gap data from as early as April 2016. HR professionals can use this timeline to get ready for their reporting obligations.
Check that your organisation collects the data needed to conduct gender pay gap reporting. Information must be collected on employees as defined under s.83 of the Equality Act 2010, which includes apprentices and workers who have a contract personally to do work.
Collecting data can be useful for internal analysis of gender pay gap. For example, it may be useful to gather figures on the gender profile of your organisation, bonus trends across your organisation, or your organisation’s historical gender data in order to understand gender pay gap results.
Why not consider conducting a test gender pay gap analysis based on data from prior years. This will help confirm that your organisation is ready to meet regulatory requirements. It will also allow your organisation to anticipate gender pay gap results and begin to address any potential concerns.
5 April 2016: Begin to collect data for the first reporting period. As bonus pay data includes payments from the year preceding 5 April 2017, you may need to collect figures on bonus payments from as early as 5 April 2016. Pay data covers payments for the April 2017 pay period.
6 April 2017: The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 for private and voluntary-sector employers are expected to come into force. They will require all private and voluntary-sector employers with 250 or more employees to publish prescribed information about their gender pay gap results.
Begin to carry out calculations to determine your gender pay gap results.
4 April 2018: Publish the results of the gender pay gap analysis on your organisation’s website by 4 April 2018. The results must be posted in a publicly accessible manner. A signed statement that the information is accurate must accompany the results and the results must remain on the website for at least three years.
Upload the gender pay gap analysis results onto the Government’s reporting website.
Although commentary on the gender pay gap results is not required, organisations should consider adding a narrative to help employees and the public understand their results, particularly in cases where gender pay gaps seem significant. Alternatively, commentary can help highlight an organisation’s strong performance relative to its competitors.
Consider creating an action plan to address gender pay gaps. Although this is not required, it is encouraged by the Government in pursuit of gender equality in the workplace.
If you would like to discuss the gender pay gap reporting please call a member of the team to discuss in depth.
Call 0845 217 2606 today or follow the link below to our contact form
