What are the gender pay gap regulations?
The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 came into force in the UK in April 2017. The regulations require all private and voluntary-sector employers with 250 or more employees to publish data on their gender pay gap. Broadly similar rules apply in the public sector under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.
You can read more about the regulations here.
Why use Gapsquare?
In the UK, women currently earn only 81p to every £1 earned by a man.
The difference is the gender pay gap, and it’s frequently due to occupational segregation, a lack of women in higher paid jobs, or what is known as the ‘motherhood penalty’. This is when the time women take to care for children ends up having a negative impact on their career progression.
Research shows that if the gender pay gap were to be eradicated, an additional £41billion of disposable income would be injected into the UK economy.
Why is there a gender pay gap?
There’s an old story about a father and a son who are involved in an accident in which the father dies. The son is rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, and as he’s taken into the operating theatre, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy – he’s my son.”
Can you guess what happened here?
When they hear this story, eight out of 10 people think that the boy is from a family with two fathers; or that the surgeon had an affair with the boy’s mother; or that the surgeon is the boy’s step-father.
Only 20% of people correctly guess that the surgeon is indeed a SHE – that she’s the boy’s mother!
This is simply because, in 80% of people’s minds, the occupation of surgeon is solely associated with men.
What happens as the gender pay gap narrows?
Companies outperform their sector averages in all areas of their business when they have a narrower gender pay gap.
European companies that have a lower gender pay gap than their UK counterparts, and that also have increased gender diversity on all levels, outperform their sector averages. These companies also achieve stock price growth of 64% compared to a sector average of 47%.
And in general, companies with lower pay gaps also report higher staff retention rates, increases in market share and even increases in creativity and productivity.
And the global view?
The World Economic Forum 2016 report estimates that the economic gender pay gap will not be closed for another 117 years. That’s far too long.
We believe that by using disruptive technology and readily available data, we can skip at least a century of inequality. Not just in the UK where compliance is now a legal requirement, but across the globe.
Want to find out more about how it works?
Our best-in-class software makes it easy for you to understand and take actionable steps to correct the gender pay gap in your company.