How can we help you with Gender Pay Gap Reporting?

You can rely on our expert 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.

Which organisations need to report Gender Pay information? 

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

Failing to accurately report Gender Pay information could result 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 potentially 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. If this is your first year preparing Gender Pay Gap figures, you may find it useful to also prepare your previous year’s figures so that you have data to make a comparison and ascertain whether you are improving the gap, even though the earlier year will not be reportable.

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

Impact of the European Union's Pay Transparency Directive

In March 2023, the European Parliament voted in favour of adopting the European Union’s Pay Transparency Directive, aiming to narrow the EU Gender Pay Gap through a number of measures to embed pay transparency. This includes the recruitment process, information employees can request, reporting on a broader scope than just gender reporting and being required to take corrective measures in certain circumstances. 

The Directive needs to be formally adopted by EU member states and will be transposed into national law by March 2026. Since the UK is no longer part of the EU, the new legislation will not apply to UK companies, unless they are a UK registered business with operations in EU member states - in which case, they will be required to comply with EU reporting requirements in the relevant country for those operations. 

However, it is likely to be in the interests of UK businesses to adjust (some of) their policies to meet these criteria. For example, a UK based company that has operations in an EU member country will have to comply with the new pay directive for that country. To do this effectively, they will need to adjust their processes and communicate the changes accordingly. 

The reality is that adapting a business’ pay policies and processes to be in a fit state to deliver pay transparency is no harder to achieve in say six countries than one, since the principles will be the same, albeit that reporting details may differ.  Conversely, by applying the policy changes to both EU and UK operations, it may allow for a consistent approach to pay and pay gap reporting for the whole business which can lead to more simplicity and understanding overall for a business. It is likely that the UK can expect changes to the Gender Pay Gap regulations given that there have been none since their introduction in 2017. Whilst the UK was an early adopter of Gender Pay Gap reporting, we now lag behind a number of European countries who impose stricter reporting parameters or action plans than the UK. It is likely that the UK will eventually follow in the EU’s footsteps and enforce more stringent regulations, by setting the systems up now to align to requirements of the EU Pay Transparency Directive, your business can get a head start.

How to address your gender pay gap

We will always advise you to question how your 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.