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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

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    Date:
    3 April 2020
    Type:
    Editor's choice

    We round up our key content on April employment law changes.

  • Gender pay gap report

    Type:
    Policies and documents

    Updated to include information on the enforcement suspension due to the coronavirus outbreak.

  • Gender pay gap reporting enforcement suspended this year

    Date:
    24 March 2020
    Type:
    News

    Enforcement of the gender pay gap reporting requirements has been suspended this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Government Equalities Office and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have announced.

  • Gender pay gap reporting

    Type:
    Employment law manual

    Updated to include information on the Government's announcement that it has suspended enforcement of the gender pay gap reporting deadlines due to the coronavirus outbreak.

  • How to measure and report a gender pay gap

    Type:
    How to

    Updated to reflect that enforcement of gender pay gap reporting is suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.

  • April 2020 employment law changes: Eight tasks for HR

    Date:
    19 March 2020
    Type:
    Commentary and analysis

    Each April, HR professionals must ensure that their organisation complies with the latest round of amended employment laws and deadlines. As well as dealing with the ongoing impact of coronavirus (Covid-19), important issues for HR in April 2020 include changes to written statements of terms and conditions, the introduction of parental bereavement leave and pay, and changes to the law on calculating holiday pay for workers with irregular hours.

  • Never mind the gender pay gap: here's the gender pensions gap

    Date:
    26 July 2019
    Type:
    Commentary and analysis

    There have been exhaustive discussions on the gender pay gap, but what about the huge chasm between women's pension wealth and what men are able to accumulate for retirement? Nikki Thompson explains.

  • Does gender pay gap reporting legislation need more teeth?

    Date:
    13 June 2019
    Type:
    Commentary and analysis

    The original aim of gender pay gap reporting was to shed light on pay discrepancies and apply enough pressure to drive gender parity in wages. But after two rounds of reporting, significant change is still to happen. Should the government sharpen its pencil, asks Ruth Thomas?

  • What challenges will HR face in the next 10 years?

    Date:
    29 April 2019
    Type:
    Commentary and analysis

    Making predictions for the workplace is fraught with risk but Emma Shipp and Lynne Adams take a punt on technological change, new legislation, societal trends and, yes, Brexit, to lay out the likely challenges for HR professionals over the next 10 years.

  • Up to 15% of gender pay gap reports have errors

    Date:
    23 April 2019
    Type:
    News

    Up to 1,600 organisations may have made mistakes in their gender pay gap calculations, with many calculating the median or pay quartiles incorrectly.

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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