Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Gender pay gap reporting is the difference between the average pay of men and women and the reporting is based on the average earnings on the snapshot date, which is:

• 5th April for private and voluntary sector
• 31st March for public sector

Gender pay reporting legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees.

If you have less than 250 employees, there is no obligation to produce the gender pay gap report but you can do so voluntarily. The deadline to report is within one calendar year of the snapshot date. 

Reporting dates:

Private and voluntary sector - The first report will be based on hourly pay rates as at 5th April 2017 and bonuses between 6th April 2016 and 5th April 2017.

Public sector - The first report will be based on hourly pay rates as at 31st March 2017 and bonuses paid between 1st April 2016 and 31st March 2017.

The results must be published on the employer's website and a government website.   Private and voluntary sector employers need a senior individual, such as a chief executive to sign off on their gender pay reports, this is not required from specified public authorities.

Employers have the option to provide a narrative with their calculations.  This should generally explain the reasons for the results and give details about actions that are being taken to reduce or eliminate the gender pay gap.

Employee

For the purpose of gender pay reporting, the definition of who counts as an employee is defined in The Equality Act 2010.  This is known as an 'extended' definition which includes:

• Employees (those with a contract of employment)
• Workers and agency workers (those with a contract to do work or provide services)
• Some self-employed people (where they have to personally perform the work)

This is covered in more detail in 'Managing gender pay reporting' in the section 'Do the regulations apply to my organisation?', this can be found here.

Calculations:

There are six basic calculations, information will need to be gathered first and then the calculations performed.

The calculations are:

• Average gender pay gap as a mean average
• Average gender pay gap as a median average
• Average bonus gender pay gap as a mean average
• Average bonus gender pay gap as a median average
• Proportion of males receiving a bonus payment and proportion of females receiving a bonus payment
• Proportion of males and females when divided into four groups ordered from lowest to highest pay

Averages:

A mean average involves adding up all of the numbers and dividing the results by how many numbers were in the list.

A median average involves listing all of the numbers in numerical order.  If there is an odd number of results, the median average is the middle number.  If there is an even number of results, the median will be the mean of the two central numbers.

The proportion of males and females in each quartile pay band:

This calculation requires an employer to show the proportions of male and female full-pay relevant employees in four quartile pay bands, which is done by dividing the workforce into four equal parts. These quartile pay bands are established when making the calculation, so any other pay banding used in a workplace must not be used.

BrightPay and Gender Pay Gap Reporting:

BrightPay can assist with gathering the information required, two reports will be required i.e. one for hourly pay and one for bonus payments.

The hourly pay report should be based on the hourly pay rates as at the relevant date for the employer's sector.  The bonus payment report should be based on the year as per the employer's sector.

To collect information please go to 'Analysis' > 'New Report' > 'Payroll Report' > Choose 'Period type' 'Tax Month/Tax Year' (this will bring all employees paid in the tax month/tax year into one report regardless of pay frequency) > Select to include 'Average' by clicking on 'Total' > remove any employees that should not be included > click 'Add/remove columns' to select/deselect the columns you wish to include/exclude from the report e.g. include hourly rate, gender etc.

When the required information has been selected choose 'Run Report', the report will then be available e.g. to export to Microsoft Excel to complete the required gender pay gap reporting.

The BrightPay report can be saved, further information on saving reports can be found here.

Please note, BrightPay will create the report using the information entered on the software, it is important to review the information generated by BrightPay to ensure you are happy that it is correct.  

Publishing Data:

To find out the data your organisation must publish, please visit GOV.UK

The Government Equalities Office and Acas have produced guidance on managing gender pay reporting in the private and voluntary sectors, you can access it here.