Newsflash: Mind the Gap!

What do we already know?

In our October 2015 Newsflash Gender pay gap – mandatory reporting we mentioned that the Government plans to require employers with more than 250 staff to publish their gender pay gap. The plan was announced personally by the Prime Minister, who appears to take a close personal interest.

The Government’s consultation process (see the consultation paper Closing the Gender Pay Gap, available here), closed on 6 September 2015 and we expect the changes to the law to come into force in the first half of 2016.

What is new?

We believe that there is now a strategic imperative for all employers of over 250+ employees to act without delay to:

• assess and identify your own gender pay gap
• note it prominently in your Risk Register
• consider making provision in your annual accounts for the financial impact
• prepare your legal risk management approach, including legal defence arguments
• prepare your communications with staff, shareholders, customers and other stakeholders
• formulate a plan to reduce your pay gap as swiftly as possible

We expect that you will want to have reduced your gender pay gap as much as you can before you are forced to publish it and deal with the impact of equal pay complaints and claims from both current and former staff.

More of a case of ‘mend the gap’, rather than ‘mind the gap’.

This week we are therefore launching our Gender Pay Gap Audit & Advice service, delivered in association with Smith & Williamson, the national accountancy firm. Our equal pay legal experts are partnering with their pay & reward experts to provide you with a comprehensive solution to your need to audit, identify and deal with the legal, financial and risk management implications of your gender pay gap.

For more information, please read on or contact our Director, Luke Menzies.