The ‘gender pay gap’ deadline is rapidly approaching and employers need to make sure they are prepared to accurately submit data to the Government.
The gender pay gap is the difference in average earnings between women and men. Employers with more than 250 staff must report their organisation’s gender pay gap by the end of the financial year. You do not aggregated the total number of employees in a corporate group to see if the 250 threshold has been passed. Each company within a corporate group is counted as an individual employer.
Whilst the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the pay gap has been declining slowly over the last decade, it is still significant. The gender pay gap currently stands at approximately a quarter among both full-time employees and all employees.
The reporting deadline extension allowed during the pandemic has now gone, with the deadline for 2022 reverting back to the normal timescales. The deadline for public sector employers to report their data is now 30 March 2022, with a snapshot date of 31 March 2021.
For private sector employers and voluntary organisations, the deadline is 4 April 2022, with a snapshot date of 5 April 2021.
The ‘snapshot date’ is the date on which the calculations should be based from the payroll data for that year.
This determines who counts as an employee for gender pay gap reporting, your employees’ hourly pay and the date which you must report and publish your information, which is within a year of the snapshot date.
Businesses must publish the data on their own website and the Government gender pay gap reporting website.
The Government Equalities Office says businesses must report:
Mean is the average hourly rate of pay, calculated by adding the hourly pay rate for employees then dividing by the number of employees. Median is calculated by listing all male and female employees’ wages from highest to lowest and comparing the number that sits in the middle for each gender.
How you present the data is up to you. Should you find that you have a gender pay gap you could also publish an explanation and any action plan you have that explains how you intend to tackle your gender pay gap.
For help and advice on gender pay gap reporting and equal pay, contact our expert team today.
