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Gender pay gap

Fiona Cuming Editor's message: Equal pay legislation has been around since the 1970s, giving men and women the right to claim equal pay where they perform "equal work". The gender pay gap, however, covers the difference in the average earnings of men and women, regardless of their role or seniority. There are a variety of factors behind it, including the impact on women's career progression of taking time out of the labour market to have children, and career choices, with typical “male” subjects such as IT and science often leading to higher-paid roles.

To address the issue, the Government introduced a requirement for all large organisations to publish their gender pay gap. This involves producing six key metrics, including the difference in the mean and median pay and bonus pay of men and women, along with the proportion of men and women in each of four quartile pay bands.

The deadline for employers to report their gender pay gaps passed at midnight on 30 March for those in the public sector, and at midnight on 4 April for those in the private and voluntary sectors. At that point, 10,016 organisations had uploaded their data to the government gender pay gap reporting website to appear in a publicly available league table.

Although some organisations are expected to report their data later than the legal deadline, we have conducted a short analysis of the data published by 5 April.

Fiona Cuming, employment law editor

New and updated

  • Gender pay gap investigations to begin in June, warns EHRC

    Date:
    25 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    The Equality and Human Rights Commission has written to the Government stating that its first gender pay gap investigations will begin in June.

  • Top five retailers take action to reduce gender pay gap

    Date:
    13 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    The UK's top five retailers are making strides to reduce their gender pay gap, but there is still a way to go before male and female talent is represented fairly at all levels of their organisations.

  • Media organisations vow to narrow gender pay gap

    Date:
    12 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    Much of the furore over the gender pay gap has concerned the messenger itself, with the BBC, as a public body, being under particular scrutiny. Despite relatively high proportions of women, pay imbalances have endured at media organisations, but their publication may be the trigger for cultural change as many signal their intention to launch 50:50 recruitment.

  • Which were the sectors with the smallest gender pay gap?

    Date:
    11 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    Construction and the finance industries have been revealed as having the widest gender pay gaps, but the identity of some of the better performers would surprise many, writes Adam McCulloch, even though some are dominated by men in terms of employee numbers.

  • Top construction firms look to narrow gender pay gap

    Date:
    9 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    The UK's five leading construction companies by turnover have used the publication of their gender pay gaps to highlight initiatives designed to increase the numbers of women entering the industry and improve the career prospects of women already working for them.

  • Gender pay gap reporting: What should employers do next?

    Date:
    6 April 2018
    Type:
    Commentary and analysis

    With the deadline now behind us for gender pay gap reporting, it's not time for employers to file the paperwork away until next year. Acas policy adviser Simone Cheng looks at why the real work starts now.

  • Gender pay gap: eight in 10 employers paid men more than women

    Date:
    5 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    As the deadline for both private and public sector employers to report their gender pay gap passed, almost eight in 10 organisations paid men more than women.

  • Gender pay gap reporting deadline passes

    Date:
    5 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    The deadline for employers to report their gender pay gaps passed at midnight on 4 April. At that point, 10,016 organisations had uploaded their data to the government's gender pay gap reporting website.

  • Companies still to report as gender pay gap reporting deadline looms

    Date:
    4 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    Private and voluntary sector companies with more than 250 employees have until midnight tonight to submit details of their gender pay gap.

  • MPs launch #PayMeToo campaign as public sector gender pay gap deadline passes

    Date:
    3 April 2018
    Type:
    News

    Nine out of 10 public sector organisations paid men more than women in 2017, figures have revealed, as the deadline for public sector bodies to disclose their gender pay gap passed on 30 March.

About this topic

HR and legal information and guidance relating to the gender pay gap.

Gender pay gap: key resources

Gender pay gap reporting service

  • The XpertHR Gender pay gap reporting service provides a bespoke report to participating organisations setting out the six key metrics they must publish to comply with the gender pay gap Regulations.
Register now

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