Whatever your opinion on whether all BBC stars are paid too much, the BBC gender pay gap report is a wake up to all businesses! Last week, we woke up to news of male presenters earning significantly more than their female counterparts. These differences were significant and from the outset, appear simply due to gender.

The BBC gender pay gap report demonstrates the inequality of gender pay within industries and is the first public sight of things to come throughout many businesses. To date, very few organisations have published their gender pay reports, after all, these are not due until the beginning of April 2018. However, with the likes of the BBC and Virgin Money disclosures already demonstrating the disparities in gender pay, it is likely that we will see more high-profile organisations exhibiting inequality in pay.

We are now seeing female BBC stars coming out and lobbying the BBC Director general in respect of the vast disparities in pay. They recognise they are paid very well but the gender disparity is a sign of gender inequality. For instance, Chris Evans is the highest paid male star, earning in the region of £2.2m to £2.25m last year in comparison to Claudia Winkleman, “the highest-paid female celebrity, earning between £450,000 and £500,000 last year”. Whilst many of these male stars may earn such high salaries owing either the amount of work they undertake for the BBC or because of the BBC needing to remain competitive with other channels and to keep such stars at the BBC, this huge gap needs serious consideration by all concerned and naturally, they’ll need to consider whether the disparity is justified.

Whilst many businesses may dismiss this as being a big star problem, they mustn’t be dismissive. This is a key warning sign to businesses employing 250 or more staff to focus on their gender pay gap, consider the backlash of any negative report and to consider the financial budget to manage the situation. That said, smaller businesses should give this situation some consideration. There is the risk of a gender pay claim by any employee in any sized business!

So what should businesses be doing to manage gender pay gaps?

• Prepare your gender pay gap report ready for the beginning of April 2018 (at the latest). Even if you employ less than 250 staff, this would be a useful exercise for any business to do in order to check for any potential gender disparities.
• Consider the impact and ramifications of a negative pay gap report on morale, culture and retention of staff within your business. What are you going to do to manage people through this?
• Consider what amendments you will be making in your business to manage any disparities in your business.
• Look at the financial budget for addressing financial disparities. You may need to consider enhancing female pay or even taking employment law steps to reduce male employees pay (this is not an easy process so thought needs to be given to this).
• Look at recruitment, ensure you are paying equally for equal jobs!
• Ask yourself: “are we confident that men and women are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across our business?”. If the answer is no, serious consideration needs to be given to your business’s next steps.

If you have any concerns or queries with regards to dealing with gender pay gap reporting or the ramifications, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team at ViewHR. You can contact us on 01425 205391 or at hr@viewhr.co.uk.