Do gender pay gap reporting obligations apply to my organisation? What employees do we include in the calculations? What counts as “ordinary pay” and “bonus pay”? Where do we publish the final figures? We answer five questions HR professionals have been asking about the new gender pay gap reporting duty.
Gender pay gap template
Private- and voluntary-sector employers with 250 or more employees on the “snapshot date” of 5 April must gather and publish prescribed gender pay gap information to comply with new laws in force from 6 April 2017.
Similar obligations apply to public-sector employers with 250 or more employees, although the snapshot date for the public sector is 31 March.
What questions have HR professionals been asking about gender pay gap reporting?
1. Does the gender pay gap reporting duty apply to my organisation?
Employers that employ 250 or more employees on the snapshot date of 5 April are subject to the duty. You should be aware that:
- the relevant definition of “employment” is fairly wide and may cover consultants, zero-hours workers and apprentices as long as they satisfy the definition of employment; and
- the figure of 250 employees is a total headcount and employers must count all employees, regardless of how few hours they work.
Which employers are required to report gender pay gap information?
2. If the duty applies to my organisation, what does this mean?
Gender pay gap resources
Employers that are subject to the duty must gather and publish information on six metrics, including:
- the difference in the average hourly rate of pay between male and female employees;
- the proportions of male and female employees in each of the four quartile pay bands;
- the difference in the average bonus pay between male and female employees; and
- the proportion of male and female employees who received bonus pay.
Overview of gender pay gap reporting
3. Do I need to include all employees in all the required calculations?
No. Employers should make sure that they report only on employees on which they are legally required to report on.
When calculating the average hourly rate of pay of employees, you must report on “full-pay relevant employees”, and not on employees who are in receipt of lower pay, or no pay, because they are on leave.
For example, for these purposes you should exclude an employee on maternity leave who is in receipt of statutory maternity pay or an employee on sick leave who is on half pay.
However, when you are calculating the average bonus pay of employees, you must report on “relevant employees”, which includes employees regardless of whether they are on leave and in receipt of lower pay, or no pay, as a result.
Who is a “relevant employee” for gender pay gap reporting?
Who is a “full-pay relevant employee” for gender pay gap reporting?
4. I don’t know how to calculate the metrics. What do I need to do?
Gender pay gap webinar
Employers need to get familiar with the definitions in the regulations to ensure that they calculate the metrics correctly.
This will ensure that you:
- include the required elements of pay when doing the necessary calculations (for example, “ordinary pay” includes basic pay and holiday pay, but excludes overtime pay and pay in lieu of leave);
- base your calculations on pay received by the employee during the time period prescribed, which is defined by reference to the snapshot date of 5 April (there is a “pay period” and a “relevant pay period”); and
- use the formula set out in the legislation to calculate each of the required metrics.
Meaning of “ordinary pay” for gender pay gap reporting
Meaning of “bonus pay” for gender pay gap reporting
Definition of “pay period” and “relevant pay period” for gender pay gap reporting
5. When and how do I need to publish the gender pay gap information?
Employers must publish the prescribed information within 12 months of the snapshot date of 5 April, meaning that the deadline for first publication is 4 April 2018.
The information must be published on your employer’s own website, accessible to both employees and the public, and uploaded to the GOV.UK website.
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After initial publication, employers must publish the required information on an annual basis, although there is no requirement that the information is published on the same date each year.
Publishing gender pay gap information
