On 12th February 2016, the Government Equalities Office unwrapped further draft regulations on what organisations will need to report around their gender pay gap. Which got me thinking - are we all players in a drawn out game of 'pass the parcel'? We don’t exactly know how many more layers or stages there are to come, but what’s sure is that there will be winners and losers when the music finally stops.
If you want to see the draft regulations they are on the Government website, but in summary they are:
- That all employers with more than 250 employees must report, in English, somewhere on their public website
- Reporting must cover gaps around both base pay and 'bonus' payments, on a mean and median basis
- That employers must also report the number of men and woman within 4 quartiles or pay bands across their organisation (at all levels)
- Employers must report at the latest by April 2018, using data from April 2017 – this means you have a year from now to get your house in order
- League tables with gender pay gaps and the names of companies not complying will be published by the Government
The music has stopped once more in this game. The parcel is back with employers, unions and other stakeholders for a further month. We’re all invited to comment on these draft proposals. For our part, it seems that the Government is walking the delicate balance to keep everyone happy in the game. Businesses will be happy that the reporting date is April 2017 and equalities groups and unions will be pleased to see the Government sticking to organisations with 250 employees or more.
Publishing the number of men and women in pay quartiles will provide a means of comparing organisations, but in our book this is no substitute for reporting results around robust job levels or grades. Isn’t the whole concept of equal pay set around the principle of 'equal pay for work of equal value'? The 'name and shame' league table idea is interesting. The Government is relying on employee and customer pressure to force employers to close the gaps - is this the 'Big Society' in action?
So, how do employers play the game from here? Our advice is to get started now. Clear away the shredded newspaper and Sellotape by conducting a simple Gender Pay Audit across your organisation. This will show you what your current gap is - are there functional areas or levels within it, where there are concerning pay gaps?
To get you started we have a free Gender Pay Calculator that will give you the headline figures, contact me at david.rees@innecto.com. We can also run more detailed analysis and make recommendations for action if this turns up issues. The other thing you can do is look at the related, but not directly connected, matter of women in senior roles. What are you doing to attract, develop and retain here?
The music starts again in a month and the game will move towards its conclusion, eventually. Winners, who take action now, will benefit from boosts to their employer brand and wider PR, better employee engagement, retention and recruitment metrics. All of that leads to bottom line profit improvements. Losers, who go for the ostrich approach, could - in the spirit of the gameshow - leave with nothing.
To understand how job levelling can help in Gender Pay Reporting, read about Innecto's job evaluation software, Evaluate™
