Gender pay gap deadline

In April 2017 the UK gender pay gap stood at 18.4% meaning that men were paid this much more on average than their female counterparts, and by 4^th April (tomorrow) companies with more than 250 employees will be expected to have published their pay gap on the government website. By doing so they will join over 7000 UK firms who have already done so, including; Easyjet, Unilever and Virgin Money. Ryanair are among the companies who have published their figures, and have a reported a huge 72% gender pay gap with women only making up 3% of the top quarter earners at Ryanair.

Although this is only addressing UK companies, we looked into the gender pay gap worldwide and discovered that South Korea has the largest pay gap, in 2016 they reported a gap of 36.7%. Greece had the smallest with a 4.5% gap.

What is the gender pay gap?

The gender pay gap, put simply is the difference in earnings between men and women.

The ONS reported that in April 2017 the gender pay gap for median earnings decreased to 9.1% from the previous year which was 9.4% – which has dropped significantly since the survey began back in 1997 when the gender pay gap was 17.4%.

What will happen if companies fail to publish their gender pay gap?

If a business fails to report their specific gender pay gap, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will initially informally approach the business to inform and warn them to do so. If this persists after the business has been informed by the EHRC this will lead to unlimited fines and potential convictions.

Aol recently reported that many firms are yet to report their own gender pay gaps before the looming 4^th April deadline.

The UK government has also stated that will publish sector specific league tables which will highlight the companies that have failed to publish their gender pay gap findings.

To publish and record your gender pay gap data click here.

Emily Sexton-Brown

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