The Government published updated draft regulations on Gender Pay on 6 December 2016, which are expected to come into force on 6 April 2017. The Regulations have addressed some of the concerns raised during consultation on the earlier version, including:
- Defining ‘relevant employee’ to include workers and employees, but with an exception from the reporting duty in relation to workers where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain the relevant data for them;
- Providing clarification about the treatment of employees who are on reduced or nil pay because they are on certain types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave);
- Explaining how quartile pay bands should be calculated; and
- Confirming when non-cash elements of bonus should be treated as being paid.
All employers who have 250 or more relevant employees at the snapshot date of 5 April 2017 will be required to gather gender pay data as at that date, which must then be published within 12 months (by 4 April 2018). If you think that your organisation meets these criteria and you need someone to help support you with gender pay gap reporting, please get in touch – we can help you to successfully steer a course through the requirements of the Regulations, including:
- clarifying what data you need to gather;
- helping you to analyse that data to meet the required output under the Regulations;
- working with you on strategies to create a narrative around your results that presents them in the best way possible; and
- supporting you with suggested actions to move your organisation towards an improved gender pay gap outcome in the future.