Register to get free articles
Want unlimited access? View Plans
Already have an account? Sign in
A report by the business, energy and industrial strategy committee has called on government to ask businesses publish gender pay gap data to those with over 50 employees.
The report recommends a “widening of the net of companies” required to report and for companies to be required to publish action plans and narrative reports on what they are doing to close the gap.
The gender pay gap reporting requirements were introduced by two sets of regulations under the Equality Act 2010. Originally, under these regulations all public and private sector organisations with more than 250 employees had to report gender pay gap statistics on an annual basis.
Chair of the committee, Rachel Reeves, said: “Gender pay reporting has helped to shine a light on how men dominate the highest paid sectors of the economy and the highest paid occupations within each sector. Our analysis found that some companies have obscene and entirely unacceptable gender pay gaps of more than 40%.
“Transparency on gender pay can only be the first step. The gender pay gap must be closed, not only in the interests of fairness and promoting diversity at the highest levels of our business community, but also to improve the country’s economic performance and end a monstrous injustice.”
