Gender Pay Gap Reporting – are you ready?

If you are an employer with 250 employees or more you are likely to be aware that regulations came into force on 6 April 2017 requiring large employers in the private and voluntary sectors to publicly publish annual information which outline differences in pay between male and female employees.

The rationale for this is that increasing pay transparency should lead to employers taking more action to address pay inequality. Regulations came into force in the public sector on 31 March 2017.

Reporting needs to be done by no later than 4 April 2018 for private employers. The reporting is based on employees employed by the employer at that “snapshot date” which is 5 April 2017 for private employers.

As the Regulations are now in force and snapshots have been taken, now is the time for employers to analyse their data ahead of 4 April 2018 so that employers are forewarned of any gender pay gap issues that will require voluntary narrative by way of explanation. Employers will also be able to put any strategies in place to address any differentials in pay which can form part of the voluntary narrative.

One of the most problematic areas for employers is ensuring that they have the correct data points necessary to report on all that is required in the Regulations.

If you require any assistance with putting your data together and/or dealing with the issues raised by the data, please contact our Claire Sleep (Claire.sleep@ashtonslegal.co.uk).