This week the government took the decision to suspend any mandatory gender pay gap reporting this year. Recognising that employees, employers and the government are facing unprecedented internal and external pressures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this will come as a great relief to many.
“Some employers will find that not reporting their gender pay gap at this difficult time will give them extra breathing space that they can use to focus on the urgent task of protecting their workforce and the business”, stated a senior advisor to the CIPD.
The suspension has clearly been welcomed by many HR professionals, grateful for the ability to realign resources to COVID-19 related issues. However, some have been quick to reiterate that the importance of these reports should not be forgotten. Progress from the 2018 and 2019 data was slow. While the gap narrowed slightly from 17.8% to 17.3% when considering all workers, limiting the results to those in full-time occupations, the gap actually widened from 8.6% to 8.9%.
Importantly, 26% of large employers have already reported their figures and we would expect this figure to rise until, or even beyond, this year’s original deadline of 30th March, for public sector companies, and the 4th April for private companies. The government’s announcement can be found here.