Government launches gender pay gap viewing service

The Government Equalities Office has launched an online gender pay gap viewing service to enable the public to see the information that organisations have published so far to fulfil their gender pay gap reporting obligations.

The gender pay gap reporting regulations were introduced on 6 April 2017, with a snapshot date of 5 April for private and voluntary organisations.

The gender pay gap reporting regulations require employers with 250 or more employees to publish the difference between the mean hourly rate of pay and the median hourly rate of pay for male and female full-time employees; the difference between the mean bonus pay and median bonus pay for male and female employees; the proportions of male and female employees who were awarded bonus pay; and the proportions of male and female full-time employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay bands.

These details must be reported to the government and published within the 12 months following the set snapshot date of 5 April every year. Employers are also required to publish a written statement confirming the accuracy of the information presented. Both the figures and the statement must be published on an organisation’s website and must accessible to employees and the public for at least three years from the date of publication.

Public sector organisations have a snapshot date of 31 March and must publish their gender pay gap data by 30 March the following year.

Employers are encouraged to publish an action plan alongside their gender pay gap figures on their own website, describing the steps they plan to take to close the gender pay gap within their organisation.

Read more about organisations that voluntarily disclosed their gender pay gap ahead of the regulations in Virgin Money reports a 36% mean gender pay gap and Schroders reports a 31% mean gender pay gap.