The Coronavirus pandemic has meant that the gender pay gap enforcement has been delayed by another six months.
What is the gender pay gap enforcement?
Since 2017, employers with more than 250 staff have been required to report and publish their gender pay information within a year of a specific date (usually the 31st March for most public authority employers and 5th April for all private, voluntary and other public authority employers).
The gender pay gap is often confused with equal pay- but they are not the same thing. Gov.org defines it as: ‘the difference between the average earnings of men and women across a workforce.’
Figures that must be reported include:
- the percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter
- mean gender pay gap using hourly pay
- median gender pay gap using hourly pay
- percentage of men and women receiving bonus pay
- median gender pay gap using bonus pay
Employers that fail to report on time or report inaccurate data would be in breach of the pay gap regulations, putting them at risk of court orders and fines. Last year, however, the gender pay gap enforcement was temporarily suspended on 24th March due to ‘unprecedented uncertainty and pressure’ due to the ongoing effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.
This year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced that companies who fail to report their gender pay figures by the 4th April deadline will be allowed six-months before any action is taken against them. They add that companies should report by the deadline if they can, but proceedings will not begin until early October.
Why did they make this decision?
The EHRC chair, Kishwer Falkner, said they have made this decision because of the Coronavirus pandemic, and that giving companies leeway with the deadline was designed to find
‘the right balance between supporting businesses still impacted by the pandemic and making sure employers comply with the law.’
Why is it important not to ignore the data collection for this year too?
She added:
‘it is not just the law but the right thing to do for their (employers) staff, demonstrating a commitment to all their female employees.’
In recent months, campaigners, gender equality experts and business leaders raised concerns that the Coronavirus pandemic could hinder women’s progressions in the workplace.
Leader of the Women’s Equality party, Mandu Reid, said that:
‘the pressures of home schooling and other unpaid care have had a monumental impact on women’s employment, and industries where women dominate have been hardest hit. Without proper support or protections from government, women are now facing redundancy or being forced to reduce their hours or quit.’
The chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute said that the need to reinstate the gender pay gap requirement was now ‘very urgent’.
Recent figures have shown a drop in reporting: February 2019 showed 776 companies had reported, and in February 2020 that figure was 1,372 before the requirement to report was scrapped last minute. So far, only 474 companies of more than 10,000 have reported, according to the Guardian.
The women and equalities select committee produced a report that stated:
‘given the high number of women who have been furloughed or worked reduced hours to caring responsibilities, and the evidence of continuing gender inequality in other areas, this should have been a time for more- not less- transparency.’
Research undertaken by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London Institute of Education found last year that before lockdown, mothers in two-parent households did around 60% of the uninterrupted work hours of fathers. During lockdown, however, this number was around 30%.
This reduction in the time that mothers are spending dedicated to paid work risks lasting harm to their careers when lockdown is lifted, the report says.
Alison Andrew, Senior Research Economist at IFS said:
‘Mothers are more likely than fathers to have moved out of work since the start of lockdown. They have reduced their working hours more than fathers even if they are still working and they experience more interuptions while they work from home than fathers, particularly due to caring for children.
Together these factors mean that that mothers now are only doing a third of the uninterrupted paid-work hours that fathers are. A risk is that the lockdown leads to a further increase in the gender wage gap.’
A spokesperson for the government’s Equality Hub said:
‘Last year’s decision to suspend enforcement action was taken to alleviate pressure on businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Separately the ONS [Office for National Statistics] continue to collect data on the gender pay gap, which fell to a record low last year, and we encourage all employers to take action to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities in the workplace.’
Written by Amelia Cutting
Image courtesy of jarmoluk via Pixabay. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.