The recent news headlines have been inundated with reports of
gender pay gaps within well-known, and often well-respected,
organisations.
One of the latest being Channel 4, which has recently reported
an average gender pay gap of almost 29% and a bonus gap of almost
48%. But does this mean that those organisations are in breach of
equal pay legislation? Not necessarily...
The laws relating to 'gender pay gap reporting' and
'equal pay' are entirely separate and distinct, and can be
summarised as follows:
Gender pay gap reporting
The gender pay gap reporting regulations came into force on 6
April 2017, and require large private and voluntary sector
employers to publish an annual gender pay gap report. Each affected
employing entity (being, any private or voluntary sector employer
with 250 or more employees on 5 April that year (the "snapshot
date")) must publish the following information:
