New rules will require UK businesses to reveal gender pay gap

Large businesses and banks will be required to disclose the differences in male and female employees’ pay, under new rules set to come into force in 2018.

The Government plans to implement a league table which will rank large firms by the size of their gender pay gap. This table will highlight the businesses with the worst gaps.

During 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron stated that forcing businesses to publish their gender pay gap data will ‘cast sunlight on the discrepancies’ between the amounts that men and women are paid.

Only those businesses with more than 250 employees will be made to reveal exactly how much they pay male and female employees in salaries and bonuses.

The new rules will affect an estimated 8,000 employers across the UK.

Companies will need to begin calculating their gap from April 2017. The first league tables will then be published during 2018.

Additionally, employers will be required to publish their gender pay gap on their website.

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that women currently earn, on average, 19.2% less than their male counterparts. This is equivalent to 80p for every pound earned by men. Under the Equal Pay Act, it is illegal to pay men and women performing the same job roles differing amounts.

Furthermore, the new plans, announced by the Minister for Women and Equalities, Nicky Morgan, will require voluntary organisations and private companies to divulge the number of men and women in each pay range. It is hoped that this will reveal where pay gaps are at their widest.

Businesses will be made to report their pay gap annually, with senior executives expected to sign off these figures.

Ms Morgan stated: ‘In recent years, we’ve seen the best employers make ground-breaking strides in tackling gender inequality. But the job won’t be complete until we see the talents of women and men recognised equally and fairly in every workplace’.