The gender pay gap is the measurement of the differences in the average earnings of men and women across a workforce. It applies to the salary as well as all contractual terms and conditions of employment, for example holiday entitlement, bonuses, pay and reward schemes and pension payments.
In 2017 the government introduced legislation enforcing any employer with 250 or more employees to report their pay gap data on a specific date each year. This data is available for public viewing on your own website as well as it being published by the government.
As an employer it is your responsibility to report your gender pay gap data. If you fail to report your data this is unlawful and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) may take enforcement action which can lead to court orders and fines, as well as receiving a ‘late badge’ which is visible to the public.
You can report your gender pay gap data using the link https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-your-gender-pay-gap-data.
When reviewing whether your business is needing to publish gender pay gap data, remember to include full time, part time, job sharing, employees on leave, self-employed and zero-hours workers in the head count.
Employers must publish their gender pay gap information at any time up to the following reporting deadline each year.
Public authority employers – 30th March
Private, voluntary and all other public authority employers – 4th April
The gender pay gap regulations do not define the term ‘men’ and ‘women’. As gender can be a sensitive topic, it is important that you do not single people out or question them about their gender. If you have employees that do not self-identify as either gender, they can be excluded from the calculations.
When providing this information if it has been identified that there is a gender pay gap, you should introduce positive actions to work on eliminating this gap. The HR Experts can help support you with this.