Gender pay gap reporting – explaining your data
24 May 2017
Under the new gender pay gap regulations thousands of employers are now required to publish their gender pay gap figures for the first time. The new facility where employers must upload their gender pay gap information is now available for public observation - gender pay gap viewing service.
Only nine companies have published their data so far but employers do have until March/April 2018 (depending on whether they are public, private or voluntary sector) to do this so the number will continue to grow.
There is some interesting reading in the written statements on the viewing service already so worth a read if you are curious about how other companies are explaining their figures.
An excerpt from the company Contractor Umbrella Ltd. explains why their figures may “distort the projection” that the Government Equalities office is looking to achieve:
“Contractor Umbrella is an employer to UK tax-based contractors. As the contractors are legally classified as our employees, we are required include their details within our Gender Pay Gap Reporting. However, it is worth noting that the arrangement that a compliant umbrella company operate for tax and employment purposes means that every contractor is paid a basic wage of the National Living Wage plus a bonus to make the figure up to the daily or hour rate agreed for their services. As such our figures may distort the projection that the Government Equalities office were looking to achieve.
As you will see, the contracting market is quite heavily male dominated with only 1 in 3 contractors being female, this may be due to circumstances of females returning to work post families. We also tend to see that at the higher end of the quartile there are fewer females entering into this profession because of the lack of security with regards to consistent income. Working as a contractor in the UK can mean that you may be in a position whereby there are times within an annual period whereby no work is available, or not required, therefore we tend to see higher rates of pay to cover this and the niche skill set available to end clients, this may limit the number of contractors who would feel comfortable to engage in this type of working. Some males or females may not feel comfortable with the uncertainty of roles available.”
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CIPP comment The latest webcast from the Policy team highlights considerations for employers in the first year of gender pay gap reporting. CIPP webcast on Gender Pay Gap Reporting. |