Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will take steps to ensure that companies with a gender pay gap above the national average must publish an evidence-based action plan to set out how to recruit and retain women in high-value roles.

The Equality Act 2010 contains strong equal pay protections – it is unlawful for employers to pay men and women differently for doing the same work, similar work, or work of an equal value.

Many employers already conduct regular equal pay audits, in order to ensure that they are not acting unlawfully, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission provides detailed guidance to assist them in completing these. In 2014, the Government strengthened equal pay protections by introducing mandatory equal pay audits for organisations that lose an equal pay claim.

Since 2017 all large employers have been required to publish specific gender pay gap (GPG) information on an annual basis; and many employers choose to take the additional step of producing an action plan. Not all causes of the GPG are within employers’ control but we want employers to tackle those that are. For example, there is evidence to show greater pay transparency helps women negotiate a better deal when they apply for a job.

On International Women’s Day this year, we called on all employers to provide salary information in all of their job adverts, and to stop asking about previous salary during recruitment. We also announced that we would be working with employers to develop a methodology to enable them to take these steps. This methodology is likely to cover how employers should go about introducing a fair and transparent pay and grading system, and so will also be encouraging organisations to exhibit best practice within their pay and reward structures which is a crucial part of ensuring equal pay as well as pay transparency.