Guidance to help Employers close the Gender Pay Gap

The Government Equalities Office publishes new guidance as 2019's gender pay gap reporting deadline approaches

As the deadline draws close for 2019 reporting on the gender pay gap, for those employing over 250 staff, the Government Equalities Office ("GEO") has published two new pieces of guidance.

Whilst gender pay gap reporting has its critics, GEO research suggests the new reporting obligation has seen an increased awareness and understanding of issues which can impact on the gender pay gap, has facilitated discussions including significantly at board level and has increased the number of employers who view closing the gap as a priority.

Eight Ways to Understand Your Gender Pay Gap suggests questions to help identify different potential causes of the gender pay gap; looking at recruitment, promotion and advancement and the rate and percentage of men and women leaving, at different levels of seniority.

This remains a generic approach but does enable employers to delve deeper into their particular sector and identify wider societal issues that underlie any imbalance. 

Understanding the reasons for your particular gender pay gap is key in identifying what you can reasonably do to tackle that gap. This is the first of Four Steps to Developing a Gender Pay Gap Action Plan, which draws together the experiences of employers who have already successfully developed and implemented effective action plans.  The guidance highlights the importance of engaging with staff, with clear buy-in from senior people which will help embed any actions so that they become part of your culture, your normal way of working.

All action plans will evolve and require sufficient time to do so through monitoring, review and regular re-evaluation with the support of an identified champion within your organisation to drive this process.