More than three quarters (82%) of senior management respondents have a clear strategy to review and close their organisation’s gender pay gap, according to research by Xactly.
Its survey of 250 UK senior executives who work at organisations with 250 or more employees, also found that 68% of respondents have personally witnessed a difference in compensation between men and women.
The research also found:
- 38% of respondents lack the data and analytic capabilities needed to identify a gender pay gap.
- 26% of respondents are unaware of the mandatory gender pay gap reporting requirements.
- 17% of respondents feel that attempts to close the gender pay gap should be led by the government.
- 49% of respondents believe instances of the gender pay gap that they have witnessed are due to a natural prejudice against women, and 62% feel that the pay gap exists because women take time out of their careers to have children and struggle to catch up with male colleagues upon their return to the workplace.
- 72% of respondents feel that women will not be able to catch up financially with male counterparts on their return to work after having children unless they leave their current organisation.
- 85% of respondents believe that a gender pay gap exists in the UK business community.
Tom Castley (pictured), vice president Europe, Middle East and Africa at Xactly, said: “The key to closing the pay gap is to understand why it persists. Part of the problem is that most businesses lack the ability to access, analyse and action the data needed to highlight the gap. Data is the first and critical step in helping to re-address the pay balance, it is the solution and businesses need help to make it work for them.
“The government can play a part in helping to close the gender pay gap. But businesses also need the analysis of their pay information to make informed decisions about it. The survey results clearly indicate that business leaders [who] want to create pay equality need the data to equip them properly to take on the gender pay gap and close it.”