Guidance on Gender Pay Gap

In February the Government Equalities Office published two sets of guidance for employers entitled “8 Ways to Understand Your Gender Pay Gap” and “4 Steps to Developing a Gender Pay Gap Action Plan”. These guides are aimed at helping employers close any gender pay gaps that may exist in their organisations.

The first document sets out eight questions that employers should ask themselves to identify the potential causes of any such gap. Are some employees stuck at certain levels within the organisation and is there any gender imbalance in their promotion records? The key issue behind many of the questions being asked is to know what is happening in your organisation. Do men and women leave your organisation at different rates? Another key issue is to identify whether part time workers are managing to progress their careers. Part time workers are more likely to be female than male and there is often a mistaken feeling that they do not have a desire to advance their careers.

The four steps for developing an action plan are to analyse the data that you have and identify the actions to be taken. Then consult and engage with the employees as the best way forward before embedding an action plan. Such steps will not be able to be undertaken overnight but need to form part of the business’ long-term plan.