A government report into the UK’s gender pay gap has been published by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, investigating the disparate rates of pay between male and female employees and advocating pay reporting as an initial step to closing the gap.
With median pay across the economy noted by the report to be 18% in favour of men, the report also found gender pay gaps as large as 40% not uncommon in some sectors and 78% of organisations surveyed admitting gender pay gaps in favour of men.
The report recommends that organisations are required to publish both the figures and an explanation of any gender pay gap, along with an action plan for closing the gap, as part of normal reporting requirements.
Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said of the report’s findings: “[Companies] must look at why they have a pay gap, and then determine the right initiatives, policies and practices to close it … and be held to account for any failure to deliver. Our report recommends that the Government requires all organisations with over 50 employees to publish annual gender pay gap data from 2020.”
How does the Gender Pay Report affect you?
Having analysed the Gender Pay Reports submitted by larger companies last year, the parliamentary committee established a number of new recommendations for gender pay reporting in an effort to end what’s been described as a ‘monstrous injustice’. These include:
- Reducing the 250 employee limit to 50
- Including partners in pay reports, as well as employees
- Including a statement and action plan to reduce the pay gap
- Giving the EHRC power to levy fines for non-compliance
- Advising companies to include gender pay as a KPI
What do you need to do?
Under the new rules, you’ll need to publish the mean and the median gender pay gaps and also know the mean and median gender bonus gaps, the proportion of men and women receiving a bonus, and the proportion of men and women working at each quartile of your
company’s pay distribution.
You’ll need a thorough understanding of all gender-related pay data within the organisation, going through the information with a fine-tooth comb to locate any inequalities. The main challenge of updating gender pay gap reporting is ensuring you have the technical
infrastructure to produce the information – without wasting hours manually sifting through data.
Rather than attempting to process the information yourself, it may be easier to update your payroll processes for an accurate breakdown of your existing gender pay gap;
upgrading outdated payroll software to a solution like MiraclePay will significantly ease the workload.
MiraclePay and gender pay gap reporting
With the range of HR and Payroll solutions offered by Miracle Pay, Gender Pay Gap Reporting doesn’t have to be a headache as MiraclePay is able to provide a detailed analysis and narrative of your business for employees and stakeholders.
As it’s based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and integrates seamlessly into any new or existing systems you have in place, MiraclePay makes it easier to retrieve historical data and identify pay gaps or areas of concern within your organisation and aide the required remedial actions you are taking to address those concerns.