Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Gender Pay Gap Reporting Timeline: What and When

Gender Pay Gap reports are due on 4 April 2024 

Gender Pay regulations now require private sector employers with more than 250 employees, at company or entity level, to publicly report a range of gender pay information and six ratios by 4 April every year. Slightly different dates apply to public sector employers, who must report by 30 March each year.

The regulations were brought in to reduce and eventually eliminate the gender pay gap. The principal of equal pay has been long established in law and it is already illegal to pay women less on average than their male counterparts. However, differences in gender representation at different levels of an organisation can create a gender pay gap.

Understanding what data you need to include in a report; how, where and when to report the information; and preparing an effective ‘narrative’ are just some of the challenges of Gender Pay Gap Reporting. It can be a complex process, and it is critical to get it right – missing the deadline or reporting inaccurate figures can impact your business’ reputation. 

We have produced a comprehensive, practical guide to help you understand and overcome the challenges of Gender Pay Gap Reporting.

Download Your Guide to Gender Pay Gap Reporting

How can we help you with Gender Pay Gap Reporting?

You can rely on our expert Gender Pay Gap Reporting team to assist with all parts of your Gender Pay Gap reporting, providing a tailored service depending on your business’ needs. 

We can advise on whether your organisation has a mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting requirement, which data you should be including in your report, accurately process the information and help prepare the narrative that accompanies your report.

We can also verify your processes and information to ensure that your compliance and that your data is accurate. 

If your Gender Pay Gap needs addressing once your report has been compiled, our experts can help you to implement policies that will address your gender pay gap.
 

When is the deadline for Gender Pay Gap reporting? And which organisations need to report Gender Pay information?

Any organisation that employs 250 or more people on the Snapshot Date of 5 April every year, must submit a Gender Pay Gap Report by 4 April the following year. The report should include only those people employed on the Snapshot Date.

What happens if we don’t file a Gender Pay Gap report? 

Failing to accurately report Gender Pay information could resulted in your business being ‘named and shamed’ by the Government Equalities Office. If you fail to address the Gender Pay Gap in your business, it can damage your reputation and adversely impact your staff recruitment and retention.

What are the reporting requirements for a Gender Pay Gap report?

Your report should include six comparative figures, including mean and median hourly pay gap, and mean and median bonus gender pay gap. You will also need to provide the proportion of males and females in each pay quartile and the proportion of males and females receiving bonus pay.

How do I submit Gender Pay information and where will it be published?

Your Gender Pay Report must be submitted online at the Government’s gender pay reporting website. The report must also remain available on your organisation’s website for a minimum of three years. Your website is also where you can publish the optional ‘narrative’ that will explain to stakeholders the reasons behind any Gender Pay Gap and what steps you are taking to address it. 

Your accompanying narrative could be just as important as the data in your report. Your report will be publicly available to anyone who wishes to read it. Since this includes your employees, we advise you to consider carefully how you communicate your gender pay figures and the related narrative internally.
 

How does my business compare to my industry?

Submissions are categorised according to the system used by Companies House. By searching the Government website, you will be able to see how your business compares to others in your sector.
 

Who is responsible for my company’s Gender Pay Gap Report?

Your Gender Pay Gap Report will need to be signed off by a senior employee, usually a named director or equivalent. However, preparing the report and the accompanying ‘narrative’ may require input from HR, Payroll and reward and even corporate communications.
 

Who can be excluded from Gender Pay Gap Reporting?

Understanding the rules round who can and cannot be excluded from your Gender Pay Gap Reporting and how to interpret your data to provide meaningful insights into your Gender Pay Gap can be very complex. Part-time employees, contractors, employees on maternity leave, non-binary employees and internationally mobile employees can all be subject to special rules. If your business has a lot of part-time or international employees or contractors, it would be best to get specialist advice on your report.

Find more details in our comprehensive guide to Gender Pay Gap Reporting.

Download Your Guide to Gender Pay Gap Reporting

What can we do about our Gender Pay Gap?

We will always advise our clients to question how their current policies may be contributing to the problem. For example, career progression of working women and the impact on the gender pay gap is often referred to as the “motherhood penalty”, so it may be necessary to focus on return-to-work policies for women in your organisation. An expert analysis of the data and where the gender pay gap sits within an organisation can help determine where your energies need to be focussed to eliminate the gap.

Will Gender Pay Gap regulations change?

Gender Pay Gap regulations have now been with us for over six years, and although we expected to hear whether the Government considers the regulations to be working, to date there has not been an update to the regulations.

Possible areas of future change might be:

•  Expanding the scope of Gender Pay Gap reporting to a wider group of employers and reducing the threshold to employing entities with a lower number of employees. This could potentially expand the reporting obligations to a large number of employers who are not currently impacted by the 250+ employee threshold.
• Requiring more actionable commitment to change from employers by making an accompanying narrative to the published figures mandatory – or going further still by requiring a measurable action plan to be published alongside the figures.
• Making the analysis of the figures more forensic, such as requiring full time and part time figures to be analysed, or potentially reporting not by quartiles, as is currently the case, but by reference to smaller segments of employees such as deciles.

Download your guide to Gender Pay Gap Reporting