The Gender Pay Gap Reporting Regulations were introduced in 2017 to make it a legal obligation for employers to take action to identify and publish any gender pay gaps within their organisation.  

What is gender pay gap reporting? 

‘Gender pay gap’ refers to the difference between the average earnings of men and women across an organisation. Gender pay gap reporting is a requirement of employers with over 250 employees on the snapshot date each year. It is different to equal pay, which means you must pay men and women the same for equal or similar work. 

Six Measures of the Gender Pay Gap 

The requirements on employers comprise six different ‘measures’ of pay gaps that must be reported: 

• Mean gender pay gap – This is the difference between the mean hourly rate of relevant male full-pay employees to that of their relevant female counterparts 
• Median gender pay gap – The difference between the median hourly rate of relevant male full-pay employees to that of their relevant female counterparts 
• Mean bonus gap – The difference between the mean bonus paid to relevant male employees to their female counterparts 
• Median bonus gap – The difference between the median bonus paid to relevant male employees to their female counterparts 
• Bonus proportions – The proportion of male and female relevant employees who received bonus pay during the relevant period 
• Quartile pay bands – The proportion of male and female full-pay relevant employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle, and upper quartile pay bands. 

What are the deadlines? 

Gender pay gap calculations are based on employer payroll data from a specific date each year, known as the ‘snapshot date’. You must publish your data every year within 12 months of the relevant snapshot date: 

• 30 March – for most public authority employers 
• 4 April – for private, voluntary and all other public authority employers 

Where do I submit my organisation’s gender pay gap? 

Employers must report their findings online, using the government gender pay gap service and publish the information in a prominent position on a public facing website. It is a legal requirement for all relevant employers to publish their gender pay gap information. Failure to meet the requirements can result in enforcement action (The Equality and Human Rights Commission can take enforcement action against those not complying, potentially leading to court orders and fines) and reputational damage. 

If you have any questions or require support, reach out to a member of the ViewHR team today.