The response said that the legislation itself is ground breaking, with no other country asking for this level of transparency, but they will review it in five years. The government believes that this is an adequate timeframe after which they will be able to properly evaluate the regulations and their impact.
Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the BEIS Committee, commented on the response:
“Transparency through gender pay gap reporting is a vital first step in moving towards equality and promoting diversity in the workplace, so it’s hugely disappointing that the Government has rejected calls to widen the requirements as we recommended in our recent report. Addressing the gender pay gap is in the interests of ensuring a more equal society, so we will continue to put pressure on companies to comply with the spirit as well as the letter of the law to ensure that the reported data is meaningful and properly highlights the low number of women in high paid jobs.” CIPP comment The thirteenth report also included recommendations for the gender pay gap reporting regulations to be amended to require more detailed statistics such as changing the salary quartiles to deciles. Also recommended was that organisations should be required to provide some narrative with an action plan setting out how gender pay gaps are being and will be addressed (with objectives and targets). The response included no mention of these areas so unless we hear otherwise we can assume that reporting will continue with the same requirements and methods for year two as it did in year one. Any change to regulations should require consultation so we will keep the payroll profession informed accordingly of any possible changes in the future.
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Gender pay gap determines women’s choice of employer 15 October 2018
Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women would take an organisation's gender pay gap into consideration when applying for jobs, a new survey from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reveals.
The poll, commissioned to understand the impact of the gender pay gap on staff motivation and behaviour, also shows that 58% of women would be less likely to recommend their present employer as a place to work if they had a gender pay gap, and half of women say that a gender pay gap would reduce their motivation in their role and their commitment to their employer. The findings suggest that businesses with larger pay gaps than their competitors are at risk of losing out on the best talent and suffering reputational damage if they do not take action to reduce it, placing them at a competitive disadvantage. Women, people aged 16 to 34 and those from black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were significantly more likely to agree that their behaviour and motivation at work would be affected by a gender pay gap than men, older employees and white employees. For example, 56% of women said that their organisation having a gender pay gap would reduce their motivation in their role, whereas only 25% of men agreed with the same statement. 39% of men said that they would feel less proud to work for an employer with a gender pay gap, compared to 60% of women. The research also points to a worrying lack of substantive action taken by employers to close their pay gaps. It found that whilst 91% of employees had heard of the gender pay gap, almost half had not read or heard any information about their organisation’s own gap and a quarter of employees think their employer should be doing more to tackle it.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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