Fewer than one in five (18%) of private companies measure their gender pay gaps, according to research produced by IPSOS Mori for CIPD/KPMG.
The key question is why?
We believe that we already provide equal pay so do we really need to look at this?
There is a persistent gender pay gap within the UK, which reflects current pay practices within UK organisations. Whilst on the face of it you may believe that your approach to rewarding staff is non-discriminatory, this is a complex issue as there are a number of factors that can drive the gender pay gap. So the point to consider is whether or not you can actually provide clear evidence to demonstrate that you do not have a gender pay gap. As a first step, if you haven’t already looked at this issue, it would be worthwhile carrying out a simple Equal Pay Healthcheck and depending on the outcome you could then decide on any further action, eg carry out a full Equal Pay Audit.
If we measure the gender pay gap we could open ourselves up to potential equal pay claims.
The simple fact is that these are risks that you are running in any event. If you look at the headline statistic from the other direction it appears that 82% of private companies have no idea what their equal pay risk exposure is. Therefore, measuring the gender pay gap should not be seen as a potential threat, but as a positive step in identifying and managing risk out of your business. It will enable you to identify your pressure points and develop a strategy for dealing with them. The potential consequence of not doing this is that you will continue to face an unknown level of risk and in the event of a claim you will need to deal with the consequences.
We haven’t got the time or resources available to look at this.
You can choose not to examine your gender pay gap. However, in the event of an equal pay claim you will have to find the time and resources to look at it and you can be sure that whenever this arises it will conflict with other business priorities. Dealing with an equal pay claim is time consuming, takes valuable resources and success is not guaranteed. Therefore, again there is a clear argument for taking a strategic approach to this issue in order that you can make the best use of the available resources.
There is no money in the budget so we can’t afford to address any issues that we might find.
In the event of a successful claim against you then you will have to find the money – we can’t afford it is not likely to be accepted by a tribunal. For instance Councils have had to find alternative ways of funding the increased paybill for implementation of Single Status.
Unlike in the public sector there is no compulsion for private sector organisations to carry out an equal pay review let alone publish the results.
Whilst this is true at the present time, the Equality Bill as it currently stands contains the proviso that the Government may force companies with more than 250 staff to report their gender pay gaps by 2013 if too few of them are doing it voluntarily.
A point that should be of more immediate concern to private sector organisations are the measures within the Equality Bill enabling public bodies to choose suppliers who treat their workers fairly and equally, as well as delivering value for money for the taxpayer. These contracts are worth billions of pounds each year – a very clear commercial argument for getting your house in order now.
