Businesses failing to address gender pay differences will be shown in new league tables. But not for some time.“Firms forced to reveal gender pay gap.” This BBC News headline, along with others, suggests a refreshing hardness, significance and urgency from the government on the subject of the gender pay gap. Read the detail and it slowly dawns that it isn’t really any of those things.
Companies with more than 250 members of staff will be forced to reveal what those differences are, which impacts on around 8000 UK employers. Employers will have to publish their gender pay gap on their websites, issue an annual report, and senior executives will have to sign off the figures.
New gender pay news?
But this is not being introduced with immediate effect. Confusingly, the news revealed this week is not even that new. And the reports concern only draft legislation.Nobody need to worry about this for over a year yet. It’s not until April 2017 that businesses will need to start calculating any gap, which is itself 12 months ahead of the first league tables being published. That is, unless any other political obstacle presents itself. These things appear to take a while. It could give ample time strategies and spin to be put in place, for data analysts to practise massaging and smoothing out relevant pay figures.Practical action does not appear to be pressing, but the issue remains. Current figures suggest that British women earn an average of 20% less than men. In November the ONS reported the full time workers’ pay gap as being 9.4% in April 2015, compared with 9.6% in 2014. Can much meaning really be gleaned from such shuffling babysteps?
[Read our blog post: Will Government Reporting Narrow The Gender Pay Gap?]
Ingrained culture
Frustration at the relaxed timescale was expressed by the TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady and Kate Green, shadow minister for women and equality. The latter commented: “at this rate, it will be another 47 years until the gap is closed, so we haven’t a moment to lose.”Arguably most pertinent was Regina Moran, chief executive of Fujitsu UK and Ireland, on the issue of culture. “It’s important that companies eliminate any biased pay structures. Differences in pay are often part of a wider context, as businesses fail to create environments that support women in the long term.” But deeply ingrained corporate culture in large organisations is notoriously difficult to change.Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general, appeared more accepting of the plans. She said that league tables should be used by companies to “ask the right questions about how they can eradicate the gender pay gap.” And she added that “the government should consult closely with business to ensure that this new legislation helps close the gender pay gap, rather than ending up as a box-ticking exercise.”Clearly the league tables, as and when they ultimately arrive, will not provide an instant magic solution. For now, a box-ticking and time-buying exercise is precisely what announcements around the gender pay gap league tables appear to be.Seeking a new work challenge where you’ll be paid what you deserve? Get in touch with us at Atlantic Resource.
