A survey of over 1,000 employers and HR professionals by the CIPD shows that only a minority of organisations currently conduct any gender pay analysis. In fact, just 28% of employers overall and 34% at larger organisations (those with 250 or more employees) say their organisation conducts any analysis of the pay of men and women.
What’s more, among organisations that don’t currently analyse gender pay differentials, only 7% of large organisations plan to conduct any analysis of the pay of men and women in the next 12 months. As many as 47% said they won’t and 46% responded that they don’t know if they will or not, ‘reflecting the uncertainty amongst employers over the timelines for the implementation of the gender pay reporting regulations’.
Dianah Worman, diversity adviser for CIPD, said:
‘The survey findings demonstrate the need for employers to act expeditiously to be able to deliver what will be expected of them, or risk damaging their public reputations as progressive employers of female talent and undermine their competiveness in attracting and retaining it. Overall, the CIPD believes the government proposals on the regulations – which are based on extensive consultations – are on the right track. We welcome the additional focus on publishing information on the bonus gap and quartile salary bands which will give more detailed insights to employers on where and how pronounced gender pay differentials exist and what needs to be done to address them.
'However, we're not convinced that the proposals to publish pay gap league tables across economic sectors will be helpful in levering systemic change. While at first sight they might appear to be a useful sanction, they could have the unintended consequence of compromising greater transparency and be subject to misinterpretation of commitment to change if not especially if they are not set in context.'