Firms must reveal gender pay audits
COMPANIES could be told to publish how much more they pay men than women across different pay grades, it emerged yesterday.
The move is expected as part of a major push by David Cameron to tackle Britain’s gender pay gap, under which the average wage of men is higher than that of women.
The Prime Minister announced two months ago that firms with more than 250 employees will be required to publish figures laying out how much the average woman in their firm is paid as a percentage of the average man’s earnings.
But now it has emerged that the Government wants to make employers go further, by publishing more detailed information about the pay gap across different career grades or job types.
National figures show that the average woman earns 80p for every £1 earned by a man.
However, women actually earn more than their male colleagues in their 20s and early 30s. But at the age of 35, the trend is reversed and men then earn more money for the rest of their working life.
A consultation on the way the new figures will be published was released in July by Equalities Minister Nicky Morgan. It closes on Sunday.
It says the Government wants to give the Equalities and Human Rights Commission the responsibility to police the scheme. Companies could be hauled before the courts if the quango decides they have not published the figures transparently.
The consultation paper also asks firms whether they are able to calculate the gender pay gap information by ‘grade or job type’ and said that publishing only one figure did not provide enough information for women to make an informed choice.
The paper also suggests that employers publish separate gender pay gap figures for full-time and part-time staff.
Officials will consider the consultation responses before deciding exactly how the information will be published.
An announcement will be made in the autumn by Mrs Morgan or the Prime Minister. It is expected that ministers will decide to require companies to publish the pay gap details once a year, to avoid being accused of imposing too much red tape on businesses.
It is also possible that the new rules could be phased in, initially referring only to companies with more than 500 staff and later being extended to those employing 250 or more people.
Mrs Morgan said: ‘Unleashing the potential of half the population is not just common sense, it’s good for business and good for the economy. But we must go further and continue to tackle the very causes behind the gap. No girl should feel that some careers are off-limits and no woman should feel they can’t achieve their goals.’
Seamus Nevin, head of employment and skills at the Institute of Directors, said: ‘Measuring pay gaps is very complex and averages can be crude and misleading. It is vital that firms be able to provide as much detail as possible.
‘Compiling these details will create a lot of extra work for HR departments. Ultimately, however, gender employment differences cannot be solved solely by employers. Many of these issues can only be addressed via a multi-pronged approach from Government, employers, the education sector and society more broadly.’
‘Will create a lot of extra work’