New gender pay gap reporting legislation comes into force this April, which requires firms with 250 or more employees to publish information on how much they pay their staff to identify the salary gap between employees in the same job role. The first gender pay gap report is due by 4 April 2018, based on data relating to the 5 April 2017 snapshot report.

According to XpertHR‘s Jo Stubbs, the gender pay gap is a broader measure than equal pay. “Most organisations will have a gender pay gap even where they comply fully with the law on equal pay for men and women. Although a few – mainly very large, service-sector – firms have previously reported their gender pay gap on a voluntary basis, the issue is new to many employers and the precise methodology required for the calculations will be new to everyone.”

In order for businesses to know what to do ahead of the 5 April, the company published a guide on what the gender pay gap actually is, the data they will have to report and how to carry out the necessary calculations.

What are the key changes to the regulations?

Under the revised regulations as of December 2016, for 2017 and each subsequent year, employers must publish their median gender bonus gap, in addition to their mean gender bonus gap. The requirement to publish the number of male and female employees in each of four quartile pay bands has also been changed to a requirement to publish the proportions of men and women in these pay bands.

A distinction is now made between the employees who should be taken into account for the purposes of providing data on the mean and median gender pay gaps (and the proportion of men and women in the four pay bands), and the employees who should be taken into account for the purposes of providing data on the mean and median gender bonus gaps.

For the former, only “full-pay relevant employees” count, while the latter calculations should include data for all relevant employees who received a bonus payment. Full-pay relevant employees are those individuals who, during the relevant pay period, are not being paid at a reduced or nil rate as a result of being on some sort of leave.

The relevant pay period taken into account for the purposes of gender pay gap data is now the pay period in which the “snapshot” date of 5 April falls, while the required gender bonus gap information is based on bonus payments made during the 12 months to 5 April.

Implementing changes

XpertHR offers a gender pay gap reporting service for business that are stuck. This includes a calculation service for the six key metrics that must be reported, as well as a confidential report setting out the required gender pay gap metrics, industry benchmarks and guidance on causes of the gender pay gap specifically for each company, plus advice on reputation protection when reporting.

“The sooner companies start implementing processes and procedures for collating and analysing their data the better. They’re also going to have to take into account that simply publishing the required figures without putting things into context could be a dangerous exercise,” Stubbs dded.

“For example, many of the factors that can result in a wide gender pay gap are outside individual employers’ direct control, but they shouldn’t assume that potential or existing employees will understand this without an explanation. It’s also a great opportunity for employers to explain what they’re doing to ensure that they recruit, develop, reward and promote women as well as men.”