The BBC found itself in a media storm last month, following the publication of salaries paid to its highest-earning stars which revealed that only one-third of its 96 top earners were women and the top seven were all men. Since then, staff at the Financial Times have threatened to strike over the paper’s reported 13 per cent gender pay gap.
It’s an issue that is likely to continue drawing attention, given that larger employers are now obliged to publish their gender pay gap information. The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations came into force on 6 April and some organisations are already publishing their results.
The Regulations apply to all private, public and voluntary sector organisations with 250 or more employees. They must publish details annually of their gender pay gap, for both basic pay and any bonus payments, with first reporting due no later than 4 April 2018. The information must be published electronically on their own website and on a dedicated government space.
The aim is to measure differences between the average pay of men and women in an organisation, not just whether they receive equal pay for equal work. The figures will show the distribution of men and women at different levels across the organisation, highlighting whether it is promoting or appointing women into more senior roles and if a gender pay gap exists, even if men and women are paid equal pay for equal jobs.
Although this will ensure greater transparency, the level of detail that the BBC was required to publish to demonstrate its stewardship of public money will not be provided.
However, implementing the new Regulations is likely to be resource-hungry. Internal systems need to be configured to generate the figures and organisations may want to provide a more detailed analysis if they feel the headline information does not give the full picture – for example by breaking down the overall pay gap figure by part-time working or geographical location.
Nicky Cockerill, Employment Solicitor at Buckles Solicitors, said: “There’s a legal requirement for organisations to publish this information but it’s their corporate reputation that is likely to take a hit if their pay gap proves to be on the wrong side of the national average. It’s worth getting the information together now, rather than waiting for the deadline, as that will allow time to review the current position, look at underlying causes and put steps in place to address any issues. Future strategy can be addressed in the written statement that must accompany the statistics.
“If a significant pay gap is revealed by a company, the other concern is that they could find female employees challenging why their pay is different from that of male colleagues. If the difference cannot be justified, there could be grounds to claim gender-based discrimination.”
Figures must be calculated using the ‘snapshot date’ which is 31 March for public sector organisations and 5 April for businesses and charities, and the data published within a year of the snapshot date, meaning the deadline for companies to publish the first year’s data is 5 April 2018.
The data to be published covers gender pay gaps in hourly rates and bonuses, and the proportion of workers receiving bonuses according to gender. It will also include the proportion of males and females in each pay quartile.
The accuracy of the data must be confirmed in a written statement signed by an ‘appropriate person’ in a senior position, such as a director or partner.
