Gender Pay Gap Reporting

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.

There are two deadlines to consider as follows, each having their own snapshot dates:

• most public authority employers must use a snapshot date of 31 March. They must report and publish their gender pay gap information by 30 March of the following year.
  
  

• private, voluntary, and all other public authority employers must use a snapshot date of 5 April. They must report and publish their gender pay gap information by 4 April of the following year. 

Employers must publish their gender pay gap information in a prominent position on their public-facing website and also report the information to the government using the online Gender pay gap service.   

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 definition

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)

The gender pay gap figures you must report

Employers must calculate, report and publish these gender pay gap figures:

• percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter
  
  
• *mean (average) gender pay gap using hourly pay
  
  
• **median gender pay gap using hourly pay
  
  
• percentage of men and women receiving bonus pay
  
  
• mean (average) gender pay gap using bonus pay
  
  
• median gender pay gap using bonus pay

*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.

BrightPay and Gender Pay Gap Reporting

BrightPay can assist with gathering the information required. Two reports will be required - 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 gather information:

a) go to 'Analysis' > 'New Report' > 'Payroll Report'

b) 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)

c) Select to include 'Average' by clicking on 'Total'

d) Remove any employees that should not be included

e) click 'Add/remove columns' to select/deselect the columns you wish to include/exclude from the report e.g. include hourly rate, gender etc.

f) 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.

g) The BrightPay report can subsequently 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

For further information on the data your organisation must publish, please visit GOV.UK

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