Cross-Border Trends: UK To Follow US Attack On The Gender Pay Gap

Following months of waiting the UK Government has finally published its draft regulations on the new "gender pay gap reporting" requirements in the UK. On publication of the draft regulations, the UK Government has asked one final consultation question: "What, if any, modifications should be made to these draft regulations?" - And so it would appear that the draft regulations are nearing but possibly not quite in final form, pending any pertinent responses received.

So what do the draft regulations say? The "Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations (the Regulations)" will require employers (both public and private sector) with 250 or more employees to produce certain statistics and information regarding the gender pay gap of their workforce on an annual basis. The aim of the Regulations is clear: we have a gender pay gap in the UK, voluntary reporting hasn't worked (take up by the private sector was virtually non-existent), and this is a hot topic that the press, the public and the politicians all care about.

For the Regulations to bite, an employer must have 250 or more "relevant employees", i.e. employees who (i) ordinarily work in Great Britain, and (ii) whose contract of employment is governed by UK legislation. They must have this number of employees on the "relevant date" - which is set to be April 30th, 2017, and each April 30th thereafter. Figures will not be aggregated across associated employers within a group. Most of the information required to be published will relate to a specific "pay period" - the pay period within which the "relevant date" falls. For example, if employees are paid on the 27th day of each month, the relevant date (April 30th) will fall within the pay period from April 28th - May 27th and it is this snapshot in which the UK Government is interested.

If an employer has 250 relevant employees, on the relevant date, it then has until April 30th the following year (i.e. April 30th, 2018 in the first instance) to produce certain specified information about its employees and their pay:

It must publish the difference in mean pay between male and female relevant employees in the pay period; It must publish the difference in median pay between male and female relevant employees in the pay period; It must publish the difference in mean bonus pay, for the 12 month period up to the relevant date; It must publish the proportion of male and female relevant employees who received a bonus during that...

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