What does your employer’s gender pay report tell you?

It seems that the news is full of stories about gender pay gap reporting but This is Money asked Ben Power to explain what an employers’ gender pay report actually means for employees? Read his explanation here.

There is a common misconception that if an employer has a gender pay gap then this means women are entitled to a pay rise but, this is not the case. Having a gender pay gap isn’t, in itself, unlawful and doesn’t indicate that the employer is in breach of equal pay laws, it is simply a snapshot of the difference in men and women’s average pay within an organisation.

The gender pay gap legislation requires employers to publish information about average pay across their whole organisation – it does not focus on specific roles as equal pay legislation does.

Nearly all employers will have a gender pay gap of some sort. Generally, a gender pay gap will be caused by having more men in senior positions, earning more, thereby increasing the average earnings for men. Although it varies by sector, a gender pay gap may also be caused by many more women than men working in part-time roles or in unskilled positions which pay less. A positive gender pay gap indicates that women are paid more than men, on average, within that organistion.

From this year large employers (those with 250 or more employees) will have to produce a report annually and post this both on their own website and a Government portal. Reports must be kept online for three years.

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