Publishing Gender Pay Gap Information – Are You Ready?

New Regulations, which come into effect in October 2016 provide that large employers will need to publish information on wage and bonus differences between men and women. The Regulations have now been published in draft and the government has released guidance on how the new gender pay reporting regime will work.

The differences between male and female pay are not shown in actual amounts, but rather as percentages (therefore actual pay amounts do not need to go into the public domain).

Are you caught?

Yes, if on 30th April 2017 you employ 250 or more employees who work in Great Britain and whose contract of employment is governed by UK legislation. At the moment it appears that each company within a group will be viewed separately in calculating the total number of employees.

What needs to be published

You need to publish:

the difference in mean pay between all male and all female employees? the difference in median pay between all male and all female employees? the difference in mean bonus pay (over the previous 12 months) between all male and all female employees receiving a bonus; the proportion of male and female employees who received bonus pay (over the previous 12 months); and the number of male and female employees employed in quartile pay bands A, B, C and D. We have shown below how these are to be calculated.

What is 'pay' and 'bonus'?

Pay:

includes basic pay, paid leave, maternity pay, sick pay, area allowances, shift premium pay, bonus pay and other pay (including car allowances paid through the payroll, on call and standby allowances, clothing, first aider or fire warden allowances). It does not include overtime pay, expenses, the value of salary sacrifice schemes, benefits in kind, redundancy pay, arrears of pay and tax credits.

Pay is to be calculated before deductions for PAYE, national insurance, pension schemes, student loan repayments and voluntary deductions. It is to be calculated on an hourly basis (which could prove particularly challenging).

Bonus: includes payments received and earned in relation to profit sharing, productivity, performance and other bonus or incentive pay, piecework and commission, long term incentive plans or schemes (including those dependent on company and personal performance), and the cash equivalent value of shares on the date of payment.

When to publish

The first publication will be by 30th April 2018, and annually thereafter. Accordingly, you will need to take a data snapshot on 30th April...