Select Committee recommends extending gender pay gap reporting to employers with 50 employees

What are the findings of the report?

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has recommended that the obligation to report on the gender pay gap should be extended to employers employing 50 or more employees from 2020.  Currently only employers employing 250 or more employees have to report on their gender pay gap.  

The Committee, which has been looking at the gender pay gap in the private sector, has found that whilst the median gender pay gap nationally is around 18%, in some organisations the gap is as wide as 40%.  It is calling for more to be done to strengthen gender pay gap reporting and to close the gender pay gap. 

What else is the report recommending?

• Amending the regulations on gender pay reporting so that the remuneration of partners is included in the figures
• Amending the regulations so that the current requirement to report on salary quartiles is changed to deciles (to allow for a more nuanced analysis)
• The government should clarify current areas of ambiguity and publish revised guidance dealing with ambiguous areas, for example on how bonus figures should be calculated
• Giving the Equalities and Human Rights Commission powers to levy fines for non-compliance
• Company boards, investors and regulators should drive change in tackling the gender pay gap.

The Government is expected to respond to the Committee’s recommendations in the next month or so. 

The Committee’s recommendations can be viewed here.