The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee has called for the gender pay gap reporting net to be widened. Its latest report forms part of the inquiry into Corporate Governance: Delivering on fair pay launched earlier this year.

The BEIS report makes a number of recommendations to continue to address the pay differential between male and female employees.

One of the key recommendations is to widen the gender pay gap reporting obligation to include all organisations with 50 or more employees from 2020. Currently the legislation requires private and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees to report on their gender pay gap, which only captures around 50% of the UK workforce. It is unlikely, however, that the Government will accept this suggestion as it has always maintained that gender pay gap reporting obligations would be too onerous administratively for smaller employers.

A number of other key recommendations are set out in the report, including:

  • Introducing a requirement for companies to provide some narrative reporting alongside their gender pay statistics together with an action plan setting out how pay gaps will be tackled. They would then be required to report on their progress in the following year's report.
  • Amending the legislation to include statistics for both part-time and full-time employees.
  • Clarifying how data on partner pay should be included.
  • Altering the way in which bonus calculations are made so that it is on a pro-rata basis (and publishing clear guidance on the method of calculation).
  • Reducing the legal uncertainty surrounding the enforcement powers for non-compliance by providing specified fines.
  • Consulting on introducing requirements to collect and report pay gap data in respect of disability and ethnicity as well as gender.

We have published a number of previous blogs on gender pay gap reporting which can be viewed here.

Users of BResourceFull Workbox, our award winning online HR resource, can access the section on Gender Pay Gap Reporting for practical guidance on this topic.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.