Almost two-thirds (63%) of employer respondents have taken action to prepare for the introduction of compulsory gender pay reporting, according to research by Willis Towers Watson.
Its survey of 68 employers also found that 16% of respondents have needed to make changes to their reward programmes as a result of this action.
The government’s draft regulations require organisations with 250 employees or more to publically disclose gender pay gap data, including bonuses, from April 2017.
The research also found:
- 91% of respondents feel prepared for the new gender pay gap reporting regulations.
- 81% of respondents believe that they have the right tools to calculate the gender pay gap in their organisation.
- Around a third (35%) already have all the data required to run pay reports.
- Less than a third (29%) have undertaken an equal pay audit recently.
- More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents intend to carry out an equal pay audit in the next year.
- Around a third (35%) of respondents currently monitor gender pay levels, and 15% set targets for recruiting and retaining female staff.
Tom Hellier, UK practice lead, rewards at Willis Towers Watson, said: “The survey shows the first challenge for most employers will be accessing the data they need to run the required reports. For most organisations, base pay figures are easy to access and analyse, but to comply with the legislation the same will need to be true of total pay data, the various components of which are often scattered across multiple systems.
“Total pay includes bonus, sales commissions, maternity pay, and car allowances to name just a few components, so for some organisations gathering this information will be quite a challenge.”