Government papers: Gender pay gap reporting

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has outlined its recommendations to widen employers’ responsibilities to report their gender pay gap.

Key findings

• The median pay gap across the economy is 18 per cent in favour of men, at an organisational level, gender pay gaps of more than 40 per cent were not uncommon in some sectors.
• New analysis by the Business Committee finds that 1,377 employers (13 per cent of the total) have gender pay gaps in favour of men of more than 30 per cent.
• Only half of the UK workforce are expected to be covered by the present reporting requirements. Recognising evidence that the pay gap is higher in smaller businesses, the report calls on the government to widen the net of organisations required to publish gender pay gap data to those with over 50 employees (from the current 250).
• The report recommends that organisations should be required to publish an explanation of any gender pay gap and an action plan for closing the gap, against which they must report progress each year, as part of normal reporting requirements.

A government response to the Committee’s recommendations is still awaited.