Consultation on voluntary pay gap reporting in the private sector

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has launched a consultation on gender pay reporting in the private and voluntary sectors. 

The aim of gender pay reporting is to address the continuing pay gap between men and women. The consultation document states that for every pound earned by men in 2009, women only earned 85p. The EHRC believes that the reason for the persisting pay disparity, despite the introduction of equal pay legislation nearly 40 years ago, is that the law has failed to tackle the causes of the gap in pay, including educational background, the influence of the social norm on the kind of work women do and the availability of quality part-time work at all levels of seniority. Such causes, says the EHRC, need to be addressed at an organisational level. 

While there is provision in the Equality Bill to introduce mandatory reporting on the gender pay gap by organisations with 250 employees or more, the preference is for the non-public sector to report on a voluntary basis so that this provision does not need to be engaged. 

The consultation aims to identify the most appropriate ways for employers to carry out reporting and invites employers to tell the EHRC about what they are doing to promote equality in pay. The consultation also seeks views on proposed measures employers could use to report, including:

  • the role of narrative content to describe the reasons behind the headline figures;
  • using a single figure (comprising both full-time and part-time hourly pay) to represent the overall pay gap in an organisation;
  • using both full-time and part-time figures;
  • using a breakdown by pay grade and data on employment by grade and type of work;
  • using the findings of a non-discriminatory analytical job evaluation; and
  • using the findings of an equal pay audit. 

The consultation also seeks views on the publication of such information as while this is necessary to further transparency, the EHRC is aware of employers' concerns surrounding publication. 

Also

The Equality Bill: part two In the second in a series of articles on the Equality Bill, we look at the changes that the bill makes in relation to sex discrimination in the workplace and equal pay. 

Official pay data - headline figures We provide a breakdown of pay benchmarking data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2008, including headline figures on the gender pay gap. 

How to ensure that employees receive equal pay The XpertHR how to section provides guidance on implementing equal pay in the workplace.