Newsflash: Gender pay gap – mandatory reporting

What do we already know?

In 2011, the Government launched a voluntary equality reporting initiative through the Think, Act, Report framework. This provided a step-by-step approach for employers to identify and analyse the barriers facing female employees, take action to address the issues, and report publicly on their progress.

What is new?

The previously voluntary approach to pay reporting is to become mandatory. The Government is changing the law in the next 12 months so that firms employing more than 250 people will be required to reveal the pay gap between male and female employees.

This step is no doubt influenced by the fact that the voluntary approach only led to five firms revealing their gender pay figure – despite more than 200 firms signing up to the Think, Act, Report framework (as detailed above).