124: Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee publishes first report on gender pay gap reporting

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (BEIS) has published its first report on gender pay gap reporting in the private sector.

The report notes that the median pay gap across the economy is 18%. However, gender pay gaps of over 40% are not uncommon in some sectors, and 78% of organisations reporting have gender pay gaps in favour of men. The report makes several key recommendations:

• mandatory (rather than optional) reporting on the explanation for any gender pay gap and inclusion of an action plan for closing this gap, against which progress must be reported annually;
• extend the reporting requirements to organisations with over 50 employees;
• clarify how data on remuneration of equity partners should be calculated and included;
• change the current requirement to report on salary quartiles to deciles;
• clarify ambiguous areas, for example, bonus calculations;
• ensure that chief executives, company boards, investors and regulators play a key role in tackling the gender pay gap; and
• clarify the legal sanctions available to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.