Firms should publish gender pay gap targets

BUSINESSES must set targets to eliminate the gender pay gap, Britain’s equality watchdog has demanded.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission called for legislation to force employers to publish plans for tackling wage disparities after finding that only one in five had done so.

Present laws require firms with more than 250 employees to report details of their gender pay gap once a year, but not the action being taken to address it.

A study of 440 employers, including Ftse-listed organisations and others from finance, manufacturing and the arts, found just 11 per cent had set pay gap targets to measure their progress.

Larger employers were more likely to have an action plan. The watchdog said it was essential for such plans to be produced if businesses wanted to show a commitment to closing the gender pay gap.