The Gender Pay Gap Explained
Often mistaken for unequal pay which is legislated for and has been since 1970 the gender pay gap is the difference in the average hourly wage of all men and women across a workforce. If women do more of the less well paid jobs within an organisation than men, the gender pay gap is usually bigger. Definitions can often be confusing as can legislation but the following taken from the UK Government website will help if you have questions as will the site link at the end. Enjoy the read.
The Gender Pay Gap reporting regulations
Large employers are legally required to publish gender pay gap data on their own website and on this government website. The rules are slightly different for employees in the public sector and those in the private and voluntary sectors.
Public Sector
Most public sector employers must follow The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. This includes most government departments, the armed forces, local authorities, NHS bodies, maintained schools and academy trusts and universities. The full list can be found in Schedule 2 of the regulations. If a public sector employer is not listed in Schedule 2 then they must report under the private and voluntary sector regulations.
If a public sector employer listed in Schedule 2 has 250 or more staff on 31 March, then they must publish their data by 30 March of the following year.
Private and voluntary sector
Private and voluntary sector employers must follow the The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Public sector employers not listed in Schedule 2 above must also follow these regulations.
If a private or voluntary sector employer (or a public sector employer not listed in Schedule 2) has 250 or more employees on 5 April, they must publish their data by 4 April of the following year.
Data that must be published
All employers with 250 or more employees must calculate and publish the following data:
- Their mean gender pay gap
- Their median gender pay gap
- Their mean bonus gender pay gap
- Their median bonus gender pay gap
- The proportion of men in the organisation receiving a bonus payment
- The proportion of women the organisation receiving a bonus payment
- The proportion of men and women in each quartile pay bandPrivate and voluntary sector employers (and public sector employers not listed in Schedule 2) must also publish a written statement on their own website. The statement must confirm that the published information is accurate and must be signed by an appropriate senior person. The name and job title of that person must be published on this website.
Detailed guidance on who needs to report and how to calculate the data can be found on the Acas website.
So there you go a simple explanation as they say on twitter a lot these days… “Hope that helps!|”