Majority Of UK Firms Yet To Report Gender Pay Gap Figures

The UK is looking to bridge the gender pay gap in the market and has set an April 4 deadline for businesses to report their gender pay gap figures. Public organizations and companies who have more than 250 employees are supposed to send in their mean and median gender pay gap info to the Government Equalities Office.

More Than 50 Percent Of Firms Yet To Comply

The Government Equalities Office has reported that so far less than 50 percent of the estimated 9,000 public organizations and bodies have sent in their data. As of this writing, only 4,428 companies have submitted their data with 78 percent of these companies registering a gender pay gap. The data showed that 8 percent of these companies did not have a gender pay gap and 1 percent had a gender pay gap which was in favour of women.

Equality and Human Rights Commission

Out of the 353 councils in England only 128 have so far reported their data. A representative of the Home Office reminder the organizations this week that the government was serious in tacking injustices such as the gender pay gap and this data will be used to take action on employers who were discriminating by paying women lesser salaries.

In a statement, the representative from the Home Office said

Reporting gender pay gap data is not optional; it is the law, and employers that do not comply will risk facing legal action from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. This is the first year of reporting and we will use the results to target our efforts effectively as we continue to work with employers towards eliminating the gender pay gap

Gender Pay Gap In The UK Close To 20 Percent

The gender pay gap in the UK is estimated to be around 18.4 percent. Gender pay is not to be confused with equal pay. Gender pay is defined as the average salaries of men and women while equal pay requires the company to pay out a set amount to individuals doing the same job – irrespective of whether they are male or female.

The news agencies in the United Kingdom have reported their gender pay gaps which show Thomson Reuters having a 16.95 percent difference, Financial Times Ltd had a 24.4 percent difference, the British Broadcasting Corporation had a 10.7 percent gap and Channel Four had a 28.6 percent pay gap.

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