Ten Facts You Need to Know About Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Gender equality reporting and equal pay have been widely debated topics over the last couple of years however it isn’t until recently that we have received some clear guidance on what is expected of organisations.

Our HR Consultant, Fiona Evans, highlights the ten most important things you need to know about Gender Pay Reporting, what it actually means and when you need to take action by.

1. The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 came into force on 5^th April 2017.

2. These regulations apply to large private, voluntary and public-sector employers with over 250 employees on the ‘snapshot date’ of 5^th April 2017 to report on relevant pay and bonus data for their staff. This includes Multi-Academy Trusts and large schools.

3. The Gender Pay Gap differs from equal pay. Equal pay focuses on the differences in men and women who carry out the same or similar jobs or work of an equal value.  The Gender Pay Gap Regulations look at the differences in the average pay between men and women within a 12-month period.

4. It applies to not only employees with a contract of employment, but also those engaged under a contract of apprenticeship or a contract personally to do work such as casual workers in a school. Agency workers are excluded.

5. Relevant schools and Multi Academy Trusts are obliged to follow the rules in the regulations to calculate the following information:

• Their mean and median gender pay gaps
• Their mean and median bonus gender pay gaps
• Their proportion of males receiving a bonus payment
• Their proportion of females receiving a bonus payment
• Their proportion of males and females in each quartile pay band
• A written statement, authorised by an appropriate senior person which confirms the accuracy of their calculations.

The information must be published on both the employer’s website and on a designated government website at www.gov.uk/genderpaygap.

6. The categories of pay included in ordinary pay are basic pay, allowances (such as car allowances), pay for piecework, pay for leave (apart from maternity and adoption leave) and shift premium pay (difference between basic pay and any higher rate of pay for work conducted during different times of day and night).

Ordinary pay does not include overtime pay, redundancy pay, or payments related to the termination of employment, pay in lieu of annual leave or non-monetary remuneration such as a salary sacrifice scheme.

7. Employers are also required to report on bonus pay, paid in the 12 months preceding the “snapshot date”. Bonus pay includes anything that relates to profit sharing, productivity, performance, incentive or commission.  Bonuses must be received in the form of cash, vouchers, securities, securities options and interests in securities.

8. Where an employee is on paid leave (such as for maternity or adoption leave) and is paid less than usual because of this, then their pay information is not required to be included in the reporting for that year.

9. For employees who job share or do part time work, each person will be counted as one employee for the purposes of gender pay reporting, not full time equivalents (FTE).

10. For those multi-academy trusts and large schools with over 250 employees on the “snapshot date” of 5th April 2017, they will need to produce their first report on 4th April 2018 for the preceding year.

Further guidance has been published by ACAS which includes advice for schools on how to calculate pay rates for teaching and school support staff and can be found in the link here.

If you require any further advice and guidance on the Gender Pay Gap Reporting Regulations and whether it applies to your school or academy, please contact your HR Consultant.