Gender Pay Gap – UK companies have concerns about publishing their results

   There is a fear amongst UK companies that the publication rules in respect of the gender pay gap will lead to pay claims. That was a finding in research conducted by law firm Bond Dickinson LLP.

In August this year the European Commission remarked that “The gender pay gap reflects ongoing discrimination and inequalities in the labour market which, in practice, mainly affect women”

So, as the government press ahead with their plans to make large companies publish data on gender pay gap employers are expressing concern.

In their research Bond Dickinson LLP found that 70% of respondents believed that their employees would question their rate of pay and would want to know the reasoning, while 42% of them thought that their staff would pursue an Employment Tribunal claim.

Although these concerns were expressed 79% of the respondents said they were not concerned that any difference in pay between male and female staff could be gender-related reasons. There was a small percentage (16%) that did fear their pay differences could be due to gender.

The aim of the new regulations is to eliminate the gender pay gap, however it currently shows that men are on average paid 19.1% more than women.

The government is currently considering three options for reporting the pay gap, the options are:

• Publication of the overall gender pay gap figure
• Details broken down by full-and pat-time employees
• Details broken down by grade or job type

There is concern amongst many organisations that simply publishing an average cross-organisation figure may be too simplistic and that a more complex reporting system is required. Interestingly, it was found that four in ten employers believed employees on the same grade had comparable jobs.

Understanding the new regulations is also giving cause for concern, and a not insignificant number of employers were suggesting that they would find it difficult in calculating their gender pay gap, analysing what the significance of the results indicated and addressing any resulting issues.

Lisa Robertson, managing associate, Bond Dickinson LLP, commented on the research: “With two-thirds of respondents paying according to a grading system that depends on job evaluation, the question of whether gender pay gap figures should be broken down by grade or job is highly relevant. But if employees on the same grade aren’t doing comparable jobs then calculating the gender pay gap by grade may not just be meaningless, but potentially also misleading.”

“It remains to be seen what employers will be required to publish.  What is clear is that each organisation’s gender pay gap will be subject to scrutiny and employers will have to take steps either to address it, or explain it.  Employers will be put to a lot of work in analysing and publishing gender pay gap information which is meaningful in the context of their particular organisation, and then deal with the potential fall-out.  Whatever the specific requirements, it is worth being proactive; the ostrich approach won’t be a viable option.”

Comment

Over the years there has been a change in attitude towards women in the workplace and those who have achieved significant positions may well tell you they have had to work twice as hard. So why is it women still have to prove their worth more than their male colleagues? Will the publishing of the gender pay gaps change anything? Who knows!