Are you meeting your gender pay gap regulations?

In December 2018, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published results of an analysis of gender pay gap action plans. The sampling revealed that only 1 in 5 have produced a detailed plan to close the gender pay gap and only 11% had set themselves targets to measure progress. The analysis also revealed that only half of employers had produced an accompanying narrative report alongside their pay gap figures and those that had were often vague with little detail. What would a sampling of yours reveal?

The gender pay gap regulations of the Equality Act 2010 require employers with 250 or more employees to report annually on the gender pay gap, both on their own websites and on a dedicated governmental reporting portal.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are responsible for enforcing the Equality Act 2010. As part of these enforcement responsibilities, in December 2018 they published results of an analysis of 440 gender pay gap reports

Key findings

The EHRC found that only around half of employers in their sample had produced an accompanying narrative report alongside their pay gap figures. A number of these were high level and contained very little detail or clear commitments to future action.

Only one in five employers in the sample had produced an identifiable action plan that was time-bound and included target-driven activities. And of these, only 11% had set themselves targets that would enable them to measure the progress of their plans year-on-year.

The EHRC says that while publishing action plans is not currently mandatory, publishing them is essential to demonstrate a real commitment to reducing the gap.

The report also makes several recommendations on the measures to include in a good action plan.

You can download the report here

The above sampling exercise follows EHRC research published in October 2018, which looked at the impact of the gender pay gap on staff motivation and behaviour.

This found that that nearly two-thirds (61%) of women would take an organisation's gender pay gap into consideration when applying for jobs, and 58% of women would be less likely to recommend their present employer as a place to work if the organisation had a gender pay gap. The research also showed that 58% of women would be less likely to recommend their present employer as a place to work if they had a gender pay gap, and half of women say that a gender pay gap would reduce their motivation in their role and their commitment to their employer.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Chair, David Isaac, said:

'The message to all employers from your existing and prospective female staff is very clear from these results. They want action, and if they don’t see change there is a very real risk that they won’t join you or, most importantly, stay with you. It will also affect their commitment to you.

'It’s crucial that all employers think seriously about this issue and demonstrate to their workforce that they are committed to closing the gender pay gap. A working environment which allows everyone to achieve their full potential is vital. If you don’t deliver on this you will fail to access a huge talent pool and will put your business at real competitive disadvantage.'

You can download this report here

The Government Equalities Office has published a ‘What Works guidance’ to help organisations improve the recruitment and progression of women and close their gender pay gap. You can download this guidance here