Reminder to prepare for the gender pay gap reporting requirement

Employers, including those in the public sector, should be mindful of the upcoming gender pay gap reporting deadline.

The deadline is 30 March 2018 for public sector employers or 4 April 2018 for all other employers. While this may seem a while away, the obligations require employers to publish the results of specific calculations and, where applicable, a written and signed statement and supporting narrative. This information must be published on the employer’s own website and on a designated government website. It is therefore important to ensure your organisation has enough time to assimilate and publish the required information in advance of the deadline.

Acas (the workplace information and advice service) has produced a helpful guide entitled ‘Managing gender pay reporting’ in conjunction with the Government Equalities Office.

The Acas guide sets out what information employers will have to provide, and employers should check that their systems will allow these figures to be calculated. For example, employers should ensure they can extract the essential information listed on page 10 of the guide; and ensure they understand the six required calculations on page 11-16 of the guide.

Who is required to publish its gender pay gap?

An employer must comply with the regulations for any year where they have a ‘headcount’ of 250 or more employees on 31 March in any year. Employers with fewer than 250 employees on this date are not required to comply with the regulations, but Acas suggests giving consideration to the business benefits of doing so.

Schools will only have to publish gender pay reports if the legal entity they are part of has 250 or more employees. For maintained schools, the governing body is responsible for publishing their gender pay reports. No schools (except for pupil referral units) will be included in its local authority gender pay reporting.

For academies and free schools, the proprietor is responsible for publishing their own gender pay reports. The proprietor of a multi-academy trust will be responsible for reporting on all the academies in the Trust.

However, independent schools should follow the private sector gender pay reporting regulations, and the responsibility for publishing their gender pay reports lies with the legal employer.