Employers' duties under gender bonus gap reporting commence

Implementation date: 6 April 2016

The draft Equality Act (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2016 require employers with 250 or more employees in the private and voluntary sectors mush publish an annual report with details of their gender pay and bonus gap, with the first report to be published by 4 April 2018.

The gender pay gap information must include the mean difference in bonus payments between men and women. The information on bonus payments must be based only on data for those employees who receive bonus pay during the 12 months to 5 April in each year. The first gender bonus pay report must be calculated using pay information for the 12 months from 6 April 2016. The information must also include the proportion of men and women who received a bonus. "Bonus pay" includes payments received in relation to profit-sharing, productivity, performance and other bonus or incentive pay, piecework and commission; long-term incentive plans or schemes (whether the bonus is dependent on individual performance or performance of the company); and the cash equivalent value of shares on the date of payment.