Are you aware of the new Gender Pay Gap Reporting legislation?

With the New Year comes new legislation which will require all companies to report on the gender pay gap within their organisation, provided they employ over 250 members of staff. This regulation is due to come into force on the 6^th April 2017 and affects businesses in the private and voluntary sectors alike.

So if you employ over 250 members of staff or are likely to by April, then here is what you need to know.

1. The regulation, similar to the Equality Act, includes apprentices and zero hour workers as employees and therefore their pay information should be included in the report. However, agency workers and partners in limited liability partnerships are excluded.

2. If an employee is on maternity leave, long term sick pay or another reduced rate of pay at the time the data is collected then although they must be included to determine how many people the company employs, their pay information can be excluded from the report as it is not an accurate representation.

3. Companies will be required to report on the following criteria:

• The percentage difference in mean hourly pay between male and female employees on the snapshot date (5 April – this is called the ‘relevant pay period’)
• The percentage difference in median hourly pay between men and women on that date
• The percentage difference in the mean bonus between men and women in the previous 12 months
• The percentage difference in the median bonus (this has been added in since the original proposals) between men and women in the previous 12 months
• The percentage of men and women respectively who received a bonus (which must also be expressed as a percentage) in the previous 12 months
• The percentage of men and women in each hourly rate pay quartile, split evenly across the workforce, reported by upper, upper middle, low middle and lower bands

4. The report must be published on the employer’s website by April 2018, stay on there for at least 3 years and be sent over to the relevant government department. It is also worth noting that companies will be expected to produce this report annually, which will allow them to show the progress made. There must also be a written statement signed by a Director vouching that the report is accurate.

5. A recent update in the regulations and explanatory notes, published in December 2016, has confirmed that a failure to publish the report is an unlawful act which could prompt action from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, which may lead to an investigation.

For advice on the new regulation, what you can do to manage the gender pay gap differences or other HR advice please do not hesitate to contact the Employment Team on 01302 341344.

By Kris Kerins BSc (Hons) Cert CII

Risk Services Technical Administrator