Government Guidance is Published on how to Calculate the Gender Pay Gap

Last Friday (10^th May), the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth published its guidance on how employers can calculate the Gender Pay Gap in their Organisation, which can be accessed here. 

Under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021, employers are obliged to report the hourly Gender Pay Gap across a number of metrics.

Organisations with 250+ employees will be the first required to report their data with a deadline of December 2022. The guidance states that employers choose a ‘snapshot’ date in June 2022 of their employees and report on the hourly Gender Pay Gap for those employees on the same date six months later (December 2022).

Gender Pay Gap reporting will extend to other organisations with 150+ employees from 2024 and 50+ employees from 2025.

The guidance outlines what information needs to be reported and how it should be used to calculate the Gender Pay Gap.

Organisations are asked to produce a report providing the following details:

1. the difference between the mean hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender and that of employees of the female gender expressed as a percentage of the mean hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender;

2. the difference between the median hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender and that of employees of the female gender expressed as a percentage of the median hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender;

3. the difference between the mean bonus remuneration of employees of the male gender and that of employees of the female gender expressed as a percentage of the mean bonus remuneration of employees of the male gender;

4. the difference between the median bonus remuneration of employees of the male gender and that of employees of the female gender expressed as a percentage of the median bonus remuneration of employees of the male gender;

5. the difference between the mean hourly remuneration of part-time employees of the male gender and that of part-time employees of the female gender expressed as a percentage of the mean hourly remuneration of part-time employees of the male gender;

6. the difference between the median hourly remuneration of part-time employees of the male gender and that of part-time employees of the female gender expressed as a percentage of the median hourly remuneration of part-time employees of the male gender;

7. the percentage of all employees of the male gender who were paid bonus remuneration and the percentage of all employees of the female gender who were paid such remuneration;

8. the percentage of all employees of the male gender who received benefits in kind and the percentage of all employees of the female gender who received such benefits;

9. The difference between the mean hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender on temporary contracts and that of employees of the female gender on such contracts expressed as a percentage of the mean hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender;

10. The difference between the median hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender on temporary contracts and that of employees of the female gender on such contracts expressed as a percentage of the median hourly remuneration of employees of the male gender;

11. the respective percentages of all employees who fall within each of

    1. the lower remuneration quartile pay band,

    2. the lower middle remuneration quartile pay band,

    3. the upper middle remuneration quartile pay band, or

    4. the upper remuneration quartile pay band,

​who are of the male gender and who are of the female gender.

The relevant employer must also publish a report setting out -

1. in the employer’s opinion, the reasons for such differences in that employer’s case, and

2. the measures (if any) being taken, or proposed to be taken, by the employer to eliminate or reduce such differences in that employer’s case.

The Gender Pay Gap information must be published on the employer’s website or in some other way that is accessible to all its employees and to the public.

What Next?

Organisations impacted by the legislation are advised to ensure they have the right strategy, framework, resourcing and data for producing an accurate Gender Pay Gap Report in line with the stated requirements.  An action plan will also need to be developed to address any identified Gender Pay Gap.

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