The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published a list of 10 organisations who have failed to comply with their gender pay gap reporting obligations.
All the companies on the list are more than five months late reporting their gender pay gap data. The companies named include TV chef, Rick Stein’s business, Seafood Trading Ltd and Robinson Webster (Holdings) Ltd, which owns the fashion retailer Jigsaw.
Employers must report their gender pay gap data each year if they have 250 or more employees. Most public authority employers are required to report and publish their gender pay gap data by 30 March each year. For private, voluntary and all other public authority employers, the deadline is 4 April.
Companies that fail to publish their data can receive a warning notice from the EHRC threatening formal enforcement action, such as enforceable action plans or investigations. If organisations do not comply, the EHRC has the power to seek a court order to impose an unlimited fine.
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Extending pay gap reporting to include ethnicity and disability
The Government intends to make further progress with pay equality in the UK, starting with making the publishing of Gender Pay Gap Action Plans mandatory for large businesses (those with 250 or more employees) as part of the Employment Rights Bill.
Additionally, the Government is expected to table the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill later this year following a consultation seeking views on how to implement ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers.
In the consultation the Government proposed to use the same measures as those used for gender pay gap reporting, for race and disability reporting. Like gender pay gap reporting, the data will be taken from a snapshot of time, however there will be some additional considerations such as ensuring there are at least 10 employees representing each group being compared.
The future of pay equality and transparency
Alongside this, the Government also released a separate call for evidence seeking views on extending the right to equal pay to include ethnic minority and disabled people alongside exploring ways to improve pay transparency. Measures may include employers:
- Providing the specific salary or salary ranges of a job on the job advert or prior to interview
- Not asking candidates their salary history
- Publishing or providing employees with information on pay, pay structures and criteria for progression
- Providing employees with information on their pay level and how their pay compares to those doing the same role or work of equal value
- Identifying actions that they need to take to avoid equal pay breaches occurring or continuing
Whilst there is no current timeframe for the implementation of the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, or measures explored in the call for evidence, employers – especially larger ones – should review their current practices and prepare themselves to align with potential upcoming legislation.
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