The deadline has passed for reporting the gender pay gap
05 April 2018
As at 3 o’ clock, yesterday 9562 employers had reported their gender pay gap figures. The response is high, as it was estimated that around 9,000 employers across the public, private and voluntary sectors with 250 employees or more would be affected.
From the data submitted so far, it suggests that 78% of employers pay men more, 13% pay women more while 8% report they have no gap based on the median value.
Ryanair has reported a 71.8% gender pay gap, however, Primark, Mcdonald’s, Starbucks, Costa and Matalan are just a small number of high street names reporting little or no difference in the average pay of male and female workers.
The public sector had to report their data by midnight Friday 30 March and the response that reported was 97%.
The Home Office issued a press release yesterday stating that the reporting of gender pay gap data was just the first step on the road to creating fairer and more equal workplaces across the UK. Through research, it is apparent that if women’s participation in the labour market was improved it could add £150 billion to the economy by 2025. So, it makes economic sense to close the gender pay gap.
From the data published so far, it is evident that most employers will have a gender pay gap. What will be interesting is to see what action employers do to close this gap and drive change in their workplaces. It will be the first time ever that employees know the average pay difference between men and women in their workplace. "Things will have to change, and companies need to support more women into senior roles" said Carolyn Fairburn, CBI director-general.
Employers can’t close the pay gap on their own as many of the causes of the gender pay gap lie outside the workplace and will require the help and support of the government. The government are committed to helping improving gender equality in the workplace and have already introduced measures such as shared parental leave and there is a £5 million fund to increase opportunities for people returning to work after time out for caring responsibilities.
To see more detail on those that have reported click on this link.