Regulations on gender pay gap reporting for public sector introduced

Implementation date: 31 March 2017

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/353) require public-sector employers with 250 or more employees to disclose their gender pay gap and gender bonus gap information. The gender pay gap reporting regime for the public sector is similar to the regime that will apply to the private and voluntary sectors.

Employers in the public sector are required to publish:

• the differences in mean and median pay between male and female employees, expressed as a percentage;
• the differences in mean and median bonus pay between male and female employees over the period of 12 months ending with the "snapshot" date of 31 March, expressed as a percentage;
• the proportion of male and female employees who were paid a bonus; and
• the proportion of male and female employees employed in quartile pay bands for the overall pay range.

The Regulations prescribe which elements of pay are included in the calculation of pay and bonus pay, and which elements are excluded.

The information must be published annually on the public authority's website, accessible to employees and the public, and must be available on the website for at least three years. In addition, the information must be provided to the Government via a designated website.

Public-sector bodies must publish their first report with the required information no later than 30 March 2018.

The Government Equalities Office and Acas have issued a mini guide on gender pay gap reporting in the public sector.