Companies are to be given some immunity from investigation by the Government’s equality watchdog if they publish information on their gender pay gap.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission announced the move today as part of its drive to promote gender equality in the workplace.
Businesses and organisations with more than 250 employees have been given measures they can adopt to publish information on pay differentials between men and women.
These come after consultation led by the commission and involving the CBI, TUC and others.
Forty years since the Equal Pay Act, women are still paid on average 20.2 per cent less per hour than men, taking account of both full-time and part-time earnings. The gap is wider in the private sector than in the public, where it is 18.8 per cent.
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Only 9 per cent of employers currently report information on their pay gap to staff outside their human resources department; and one in five employers actively discourages or forbids discussion of employees’ pay.
The commission has gathered evidence that shows that far fewer bosses in the private sector are taking action to close the gender pay gap.
Increasing transparency, it argues, is crucial to tackling the disparity in earnings.
Its proposed voluntary menu of measures include giving employers an option to publish a narrative explaining their gender pay gap — and outlining the remedial steps proposed.
Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Our research shows that the majority of businesses in the UK realise that they need to address the significant differences between men and women’s pay that still exists 40 years after the Equal Pay Act.
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“Transparency is really the first step to addressing the gender pay gap. If an employer doesn’t look at their own gender pay gap, how do they address it?”
The proposals were criticised however by the CBI. Katja Hall, CBI Director of Employment Policy, said:“Unfortunately we cannot support the EHRC’s current proposals. There is no disagreement about the need to address the lack of women in higher-paid jobs, but there is a disagreement about what will actually work, and what will backfire.
“The publication of average salary figures for men and women, which could be made compulsory under the terms of the Equalities Bill, could be misleading. People could think that women are paid less than men in the same role, which is rightly illegal, when differences will actually reflect the proportions of men and women in higher-paid jobs.
“We need policies that will encourage talented women to aim for and apply for better-paid roles. Making companies that are struggling to attract suitable female applicants for senior roles publish average gender-pay figures could make it even more difficult.
“The CBI put forward an alternative which would have enabled companies to report on progress towards gender equality in a meaningful way. Unfortunately the EHRC has missed a critical opportunity to propose a workable, effective policy, and the CBI has had to reject its report. However, we hope that a sensible and effective policy will ultimately emerge.”