In a bid to narrow the gender pay gap (the difference between the pay of male and female employees) the government introduced legislation requiring all employers with over 250 staff to publish details of their pay gap by March or April 2018.
Recently released figures show that only 85 of a possible 9000 organisations have so far complied. The 9000 employers account for just over half of all jobs in the UK.
Companies may just be using the time available to them and waiting until closer to the deadline to publish. However, there is some suggestion that the reluctance to publish may be connected to the negative publicity that has been attracted to organisations, such as the BBC, when they have published their data. Additionally, employees may be quick to issue claims where information about pay is made available to them and a disparity between the pay of male and female workers doing equal work is revealed.
What has to be reported?
- The average gender pay gap as a mean average
- The average gender pay gap as a median average
- The average bonus pay gap as a mean average
- The average bonus pay gap as a median average
- The proportion of males receiving a bonus payment and the proportion of females receiving a bonus payment
- The proportion of males and females when divided into four groups ordered from lowest to highest pay.