Gender Pay Reporting regulations are due to come into force on 6 April 2017 and will apply to public and private sector employers with 250 or more employees. At the moment, the government is not concerned with forcing smaller employees to report their data but it looks as though they will be encouraged to do so as good practice.
Larger employers that will be affected by the new legislation will need to have adequate systems in place in order to collate and submit their data so as to comply with their duty to publish accurate annual information relating to pay. Smaller organizations may find that collating the correct data takes longer than anticipated whilst the larger types of organization may already have appropriate resources in place to collect the data such as sophisticated HR and other information systems.
Affected employers and those employers who are around the 250 employees mark should be thinking about gender pay reporting and what their results are likely to show. By preparing early on, employers can calculate, analyze and where appropriate, begin to take action to improve their gender pay gap. They also lower their risk of failing to comply with the reporting requirements and although the draft regulations provide no statutory civil or criminal sanctions, in practice the most significant risk to employers for not complying is likely to be reputational. If employers have prepared early enough then they will be in a better position to address employee concerns, take legal advice in good time and also be able to prepare a voluntary narrative to explain any gender pay gap that their results may show.
The Backhouse Solicitors Team
Tel: 01245 893400
