Gender pay gap reporting

Updating author: Tina McKevitt

Summary

• Under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/172), relevant employers in the private and voluntary sectors are required to publish gender pay gap information on an annual basis. There are separate but parallel gender pay gap reporting obligations for public-sector employers. (See Overview)
• Employers should not confuse the gender pay gap with equal pay. (See The gender pay gap and equal pay)
• For the reporting obligations to apply, the employer must employ 250 or more employees on the snapshot date of 5 April in the year to which the required information relates. (See Which employers are required to report gender pay gap information?)
• For the purposes of calculating the gender pay gap, employers must identify which of their employees are "relevant employees" and which are "full-pay relevant employees". (See Who is a "relevant employee"?)
• Employers must base their gender pay gap calculations on pay data from a specific pay period. (See Definition of "pay period" and "relevant pay period")
• Having collected the pay data details of all full-pay relevant employees, employers must calculate each employee's hourly rate of pay. (See Collecting the pay data)
• Employers must calculate the differences in mean pay, median pay, mean bonus pay, and median bonus pay between male and female employees. (See Calculating the difference in mean pay, Calculating the difference in median pay, Calculating the difference in mean bonus pay and Calculating the difference in median bonus pay)
• Employers must also identify the proportion of male and female employees in each pay quartile by reference to their hourly pay and the proportion of male and female employees who were paid bonus pay. (See Identifying the proportions of male and female employees in each quartile pay band and Identifying the proportions of male and female employees who were paid bonus pay)
• Employers are required to publish their gender pay gap information on their own website and on a Government website. (See Publishing gender pay gap information)
• There are consequences for an employer if it fails to comply with its gender pay gap reporting obligations. (See Non-compliance - what are the consequences?)