From April 2017, large companies will be required to publish details about their gender pay, the Government has announced.

Which organisations will be caught by the reporting obligations?

They will apply to private sector employers with 250 or more employees.

What employees are affected by the reporting?

The reporting will apply to any member of staff who:

  • is employed as of 30 April
  • is on full pay
  • is in England, Wales or Scotland

Zero hours workers and apprentices are also included.

Employees on reduced rates of pay while on maternity leave or sick leave are excluded, as well as self-employed members of staff and agency workers.

What information needs to be reported?

Five separate reports are required:

  • the difference in mean pay between genders
  • the difference in median pay between genders
  • the difference in mean bonus payments between genders
  • the proportion of men and women in the workforce that received a bonus
  • the number of men and women in each quartile of the pay range

When is the first report due?

The first report will be based on pay data captured on April 30, 2017 and can be published at any time from May 1, 2017 to April 4, 2018. It will then be necessary to publish reports annually thereafter.

Where will the report be published?

Employers will be required to publish their data on their website, as well as submit it to a government website. While there is still time, we recommend doing a practice run to ascertain the extent and nature of any pay gap.