Deadline Fast Approaching for Gender Pay Gap Reporting
With the deadline for submitting gender pay gap reports fast approaching, stories relating to the gender pay gap are featuring heavily in the news, almost daily. For firms that meet the criteria, it is a legal requirement to submit the appropriate data in time. Lawson-West’s employment team can help to advise you on how to submit your data as well as advising on other areas of mandatory reporting you must carry out to protect your organisation against any unnecessary fines.
What is Gender Pay Gap Reporting?
New legislation that came into force last year requires all companies with 250 employees or more to report their gender pay gap, annually. Gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly pay of men and women. As it stands currently, the mean gender pay gap is 14.1%, and has been stuck at the same level for three years, will this year be any different?
The report must be submitted to the Government Equalities Office (GEO) by 4 April 2018. As it currently stands, only one third of companies have submitted their figures.
Within the report, companies must outline the following;
· Gender Pay Gap (mean and median averages) – The difference in the amount earned per hour
· Gender Bonus Gap (mean and median averages) – The difference in the size of bonus received
· The proportion of men and women in the company who receive bonuses
· The breakdown of men and women in different pay quartiles
The significance of Mean and Media figures.
The mean, commonly known as the average, is calculated when the wages of all employees is added up and divided by the total number of employees. The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the mean male pay and mean female pay. You would calculate the mean of each gender and from there work out the difference.
The median is the figure that falls in the middle of a range when everyone’s wages are lined up from smallest to largest. The median gap is the difference between the employee in the middle of the range of male wages and the middle employee in the range of female wages.
Submitting your Gender Pay Gap Report
Figures must be submitted to the GEO in time, so that they can be published online to a government website and they must also be available to view on the business’s own website. This ensures that the information is publically available to everyone to view; customers, employees and future prospects.
For those that fail to publish their report in time for the deadline on 4 April, they could face unlimited fines and convictions.
Equal Pay vs Gender Pay Gap
Equal Pay was enforced 47 years ago and since then it has been illegal to pay women less than men. The Equality Act 2010 states that is against the law to pay people, performing the same role or ‘work of equivalent value’ differently because of gender, regardless on the size or nature of the business.
Whilst Equal Pay deals with the pay differences of men and women who carry out the same role, the Gender Pay Gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in an entire workforce, regardless of the job role.
Gender Pay Gap in the News
From the reports already submitted, 76% of organisations said men’s median pay was higher than that of their female colleagues, 15% said women were paid more and 9% said there was no gap between the sexes.
The stories in the news have focused mainly on males being paid significantly more than females.
Netflix drama, The Crown, revealed that Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip, was paid significantly more than Claire Foy who played the lead role as the Queen.
HSBC were also pushed into the limelight as their report revealed men are being paid twice as much as women, the largest gender pay gap reported to date by a major UK company.
Help from Lawson-West on Gender Pay Gap reporting
The society is becoming more and more focused on gender equality but what is evident from the reports submitted so far, is that there is still a lot more work needed to be done to balance out the differences. Lawson-West can help you to understand Gender Pay Gap reporting specifically and on a wider scale can provide guidance on ensuring your business doesn’t fall foul of any gender inequality issues.
If you have any concerns or would like further guidance on this matter, call 0116 212 1000, to find out how our expert Employment Team can advise you.
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