Gender pay gap reporting: why employers need to take action now

The new gender pay gap reporting obligation (GPGR) for employers with 250 or more employees is expected to become law in October 2016.  So far, the government has only published draft regulations (see here) setting out how the new obligation will operate.  Whilst the government has been asked to clarify a number of its proposed provisions – and some changes are therefore highly likely – employers caught by the new rules should not sit back and await the final polish of regulations before considering how they will deal with this new obligation.

Don’t be caught out by the dates

• Although the current draft regulations provide a long stop date of 29 April 2018 for employers to make their first gender pay gap report, under the draft regulations, bonus payments made from May 2016  are caught within that reporting obligation.
• An employer must also report on a gender pay snapshot taken on 30 April 2017 – meaning that it will impact pay awards made in the next twelve months).

Key questions to consider

We have identified key questions for employers to plan and progress now:

1. How will you identify “in scope” employees and pay data?
2. What will be the impact of bonus awards being paid from this May and pay awards made in the run up to 30 April 2017?
3. How will you calculate and analyse your gender pay gap? 
4. Should you do a dry run using data from 2015/2016?
5. Will you rely on legal privilege to protect your data?
6. What steps can you take to close any gender pay gap?
7. How will you report your data?
8. Who will be responsible for that report in your business?

Our webinar and guidance note provide more detail on GPGR and crunching the numbers

To help guide employers through these steps – ensuring they understand how their employees’ pay data will be used, analysed and reported on in complying with GPGR – Osborne Clarke recently hosted a webinar looking at GPGR in more detail and how businesses may want to use legal privilege in their fact-finding process.

[Webinar] Mandatory gender pay gap reporting 

Quick reference guide to mandatory gender pay gap reporting

[Infographic] Gender pay gap timeline

We will provide an update once we have the final form regulations and promised government guidance.

In the meantime, please contact your usual Osborne Clarke contact or our employment specialists for more information.