hello and welcome to this session in which we're going to look at the topic of gender pay reporting. What we're going to do is start off by thinking about what is required of you and you're making your dental pay reports on Then move on and think about some of the actions that you could be taking. As a result of those reports on, we're also going to move on on look a equal pay. Although equal pay is a different issue to gender pay reporting, it is related and the attention that has been given to gender pay reporting has brought up. The whole topic are of equal pay as well. They're void is useful to look at both at the same time. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to start off line looking at the law on these two pieces of law. The introducer requirement to do gender pay reports First of all, this equality at 2010 gender pay gap information regulations. 2017 on these regulations cover organizations with at least 250 employees which operate in the private or the voluntary sector in England, Scotland and Wales. So Just to be clear, the requirement to report on the gender pay gap only applies to organisations with at least 250 employees. We then also have the Equality Act 2010 specific duties and public authorities regulations. 2017 on these regulations extended the requirement to make her gender pay report to the public sector in England, Wales and Scotland. On these regulations cover public sector employers worth 250 employees, or MAWR, but excludes the armed Forces. Government departments on those bodies that are listed in Schedule 19 of the Equality Act 2010 of course, for the public sector, it's also worth noting that they're also covered by the public equality duty. So there was a on element of reporting that has been there in the public sector for some time now. The requirement for gender pay reporting is an annual requirement on we're going to have a look in amazement at what exactly it is that you're required to report. The information that relates to a specific calculation at a specific time is the fifth of April for the private on the voluntary sector on the 31st of March for the public sector on these dates are referred to as a snapshot dates. And so what? What we're looking at here is a snapshot off data in your organization on those particular dates. But as we'll see, there is also a requirement to report on bonus information on that goes over a period of time. But all will become clear in a moment. So what exactly is it that you need to report? Well, first of all, you need to report on the mean pace of the average pay for both men and for women on the median pay. And just to be clear about this, the median is when you line up your employees on its the middle point. So if you lying toe along the men in order of increasing pay from the lowest to the highest, it's the man that standing in the middle of that line, it's the same for the women. The average is adding up all the salaries and dividing by the number of salaries that you've added together. Um, Ali. The reason for having these two calculations is that the mean can be skewed by a number of very high salaries or even just one extremely high salary or by a number of very low salaries, whereas the median is is is, say, looking at the midpoint. The ever requirement is to look at the proportion of men and women in each quarter tile, when you are like lineup the men and women according to increasing pay. So what you're doing here is you're putting the entire workforce in line order according to their pay. So from the lowest pay to the highest paid on, then you're dividing that into 4/4. I'm just saying for each quarter. So for each quartile had what proportion? What percentage in that quarter is men on what percentage is women? And again, what that's doing is it's taking out the skew that can happen because of some very low salaries and some very high salaries. Now, when looking at this data, the things to be looking at is, do you if you have a proportion off a high proportion of men or women in one of the core tiles? Is this because of a particular job? So, for example, in the organization, do you have a particular job that is paid at the lowest rate and is that job, a job that, primarily women do on that might help you give some insight into why this agenda paige out. As we'll see when we come to thinking about some solutions, the next step is end to say, Well, why is that job done product primarily by women? Or why is that job done primarily by men on then? In your action plan, you could be thinking of things that you could do to try and address that, and that might be thinking of your recruitment. It might be thinking about internal promotions, but unless you know where the concentrations over of jobs are, if that's an issue in your organization is difficult to develop that action plan. Now. All that information that we've talked about so far is done at the snapshot day. So for the private sector, the 31st of March for the public sector that the fifth of April. But then there's also a requirement look of bonuses. Now, of course, you can't do that according to a snapshot day, because you possibly don't necessarily pay a bonus on the 31st of March, all the fifth of April and so with bonuses is looking at the 12 month period leading up to the 31st of March, or the fifth of April on the requirement here is to look at all the bonuses that have been paid and to take the average. So what is the average bonus payment for women over that 12 month period on then? Also, to look at exactly the same for men and then make a comparison between the two on? Also, there's a requirement to add up the number of men and the number of women who have actually received a bonus on again. This is important because if what you look see when you look at the data is that more of one gender than another have have received a bonus, then it's almost inevitable that the next step is going to be concluding that that particular gender received more on every at more total bonus payments. Taking the average Smoothes out any of the differences caused that. But again, when we thinking of the action plan, why did one gender received more bonuses than another? And if it goes back to the nature of the job again, that the certain jobs for which you pay a bonus in certain jobs, which did him on one of those jobs has a predominance of men and women. Why now? There may be a really good reason for it, and it may be the that you can explain this, but it's all part of thinking about the action plan. T understand the data. So when we started this session, what I said was that we were going to look up what you need to go to you need to report, but also in particular. We're going to think about what you need to be addressing interrogating this data and really understanding what is telling you is an important step now for a lot of organizations. There's a computer program that is calculating the data on Do you going to be presented with numbers at the end of it? It might be necessary to go back for the finance people or the I T people, whoever it is that have helped put that together on to talk to them about the information on to make sure that the interpretation that you've got of it is how that that has been calculated. Soto understand the data is an essential first step, But also there is a requirement to make sure that you've got some of the basics, right. So have you got 250 employees on What exactly are you, including in pay Now, first of all, on the employees, it's including a all employees. So it is if you've got part time employees than each part Time employees counts as warm. So, for example, if you've got a job share situation and you've got to employees doing that job share, they are two employees For the purposes of working out. Whether you've got 250 they're not counted as one employee. The other thing to know is that agency workers are included in the calculations of the agency that that they are attributed to not to the organization where they're working. So if you're an organization and you've got some agency work is doing work for you, you do not have to include them. In that 250 employees, employees who are based overseas are included in the 250 if their contract of employment is governed by UK law. So really, what we're doing there is, we're saying, Where's their home on. If contractually, you've decided that their home is the UK, then that is where they accounted for these purposes. Okay, what is pay the following items are included when you're calculating your pay, so base pay. So the salary that somebody guess allow insists pay for piecework. So if you've got employees being paid according toe how much they receive, they work. Then that is included. Pay for leave on shift premiums. They're all included, but there were also some items that are not included, and that is over time. So that's not included. Termination pay. So that includes a redundancy payment, for example, or any severance pay that you've entered into pay in lieu if leave onda remuneration that that's not provided in money. So anything that you might be doing in the in the voucher system ALS or something like that. No, you do need Teoh edible that the peso you've got that That one's some four employees. Andi, if you have a lot of variable pay or particularly complicated way of calculating employees pay, I would recommend that you go to the Acres website and look at the guide and sit. They've written there. It is really useful, useful document. Now when you have calculated your information, your requirement is to put a full report on your company website and that has got remain on your website for three years. And so because it's got to remain there for so long, it really we're thinking about what you want to put. Come back to that in a moment, but let's just conclude what else you've got to do with the information. You've also got to upload it to the government portal on If you did agenda Pay report last year is exactly the same replaced place this year, but you need toe upload that information on. Then it's there in one place for anybody because it is a public document to go and have alert in compare different companies, etcetera. The government, when they first introduced gender pay reporting, said that there is a possibility of some penalty if you refuse to engage. The penalty was never actually introduce, but it is worth just being aware that that might occur at some stage in the future. So let's go back to what you might want to be putting in this report. The first thing is to say that you might actually not want to put anything more than the data in the report. That could be something that you decide to do. There was no requirement of commentary. So as long as you've got those pieces of data that I went through earlier, that's all that you've got to do. And it may be that your thought is that the figures speak for themselves. So if, for example, you're showing a very small gender pay gap, Andi, there really isn't anything to say a lot about. You might just want to report the data, but you might also want to say we've not put together an action plan or we are not fighting further common tree, because what the calculations show is that we don't appear to have an issue to address. But we want to review this every year when we continue to report on. If at some stage in the future and issue did occur, then, of course, we would report on it. Here I make a commentary accordingly. That might be a useful thing to do. And however most organizations, if we look back at the first reports that were made in 2018. Most organizations do have a gender pay gap, and therefore they do have something that they might want to talk about. So what might you want to include or first of all, explain the data? No. Everybody understands the difference between a mean and a medium. Andi. There is the risk, their employees or the wider public look at your data on misinterpreted simply because they don't understand those statistical terms. So I would strongly recommend that you are explaining the difference between the mean and the median on what is men by the court tiles? Because otherwise there is that real danger that people misunderstand the data jump to conclusions and then this all the going back and correcting on incorrect assumption, which is more difficult and getting it crept from the star. The next thing that you might want to include is to say anything you've already done to address the gender pay gap. So you may, for example, have already noted that you've got women concentrated in a lower paid job on you may have put in place and training to enable women to see promotion. You may have put in place a particular women and leadership program to encourage remaining to give women the skills and the confidence to apply from all senior jobs. You might have been doing work with local schools, colleges, universities, Teoh. I carry on, presuming that women are underpaid. Of course it could. It could be men that a lower paid in your organization, but forgive me for carrying on there. But you may have been working for schools, colleges and universities with some of the initiatives to encourage women to apply, maybe for for stem type jobs, which which tend to be better paid. So you might already be doing a number of good things. Have a good thing about things that you've done in recent times, but you could include. And then what are you going to do? Andi again? It could be training and development activities. It could be recruitment activities. It could be promotion focus. It could just be talking to your employees and getting alongside some of them and encouraging them to think that they can progress. So what is it that you plan to do in the future On? Then you might want to include a reflection on what the gender pay gap information is telling you. I mean, it's not to try Onda argue away agenda Paige up. But it's to say, Look, let's be honest. This is the reason that that some of its occurred on that's going back to things like there's a concentration of a particular gender in a particular job. Or despite our best efforts at recruitment, we have been unable to attract a certain gender to certain job. It could be that there are particular historical reasons why you've got a particular profile in the organization on. You might want to explain that. But really the key topic areas that make sure that whoever is reading this information has got enough information so that they understand it correctly. Talk about what you've already done. Talk about what you plan to do, Andi, reflect on what the information is telling it. Yeah, the length of the report is completely up to you, but just make sure that you're getting across the message that you want to be saying now. I said that we were also going to look a equal pay. Now it's difference agenda, pay reporting, gender pay reporting is looking at at the differences of a group of men compared to a group of women. What equal pay is saying is that I, as a woman, believe that I am being paid less than a man doing the work of equal value, like work or work rated is equivalent. So gender pay reporting is looking at the organization as a whole. Equal pay is what individual people or maybe a group of people within your organization are saying about their pay. But because equal pays about the comparison between men and women. So if, for example, somebody said, Well, I believe that I'm being paid differently to people of a different race in the organization, they couldn't bring an equal pay claim that could bring a discrimination claim based on race. But equal pay only applies agenda. So because equal pay only applies to gender and gender pay, reporting only applies to gender. People's minds have linked the two, even though legally there are some significant differences on. That's why I've chosen to talk about equal pay. Here is well because quite often when employees raise issues about gender pay reporting, they're also looking at themselves on their linking it to equal pay. So the relevant legislation. Here is the quality at 2010 on what this does is take the Equal Pay Act 1970. So this is very old legislation on has incorporated that into the equality at 2010. On it comes us a work of equal value. Now what that is is somebody saying I do a different job, So maybe a man saying I do a different job to that woman But I believe that our jobs are of equal value on what that they're saying here is that when you look at the content of the job on the requirements to do that job, actually they're equal, even though they're quite different. Now, if somebody does bring a claim of work of equal value t the employment tribunal, what the employment Tribunal will will do is to appoint an independent assessor. Because, of course, the first step is to say, Are these jobs of equal value on that independent assessor will go and have a look at the jobs on basically decide if the claim can proceed because if they're not of equal value, it can proceed. We've also got like work, and in many ways that's easier to understand. because what this is saying is a man saying, Look, there's a woman she's doing the same jobs May or a job that is very, very similar But she's being paid more than May, but vice versa on then we have work rated is equivalent on. This only applies to on analytical job evaluation scheme. So what we've got here is jobs that have been evaluated using a scheme where, in numerical value is then given to the job and the jobs of either come out with the same rating or very similar one and have been placed in the same grades. But they are paid differently now. In those situations, the employee can bring a claim to the employment tribunal that will look to see, first of all, whether there is inequality. But there are situations in which the employer can defend the differences on here. Some defenses that have been brought in recent cases and just get the same quality well, it's about them and whether they've been successful, so versatile, different negotiating groups. No, that is not a successful argument, so to say Well, actually, these employees about this group or this individual, which is primarily or or is Ah, man negotiated a better salary, and therefore they're paid more. That has not been accepted as a defense, different skill levels. So yep, that both employed maybe is a health and safety officer. But one the man is paid more because them all skilled. Now that could be a possible defense, but only if the different level of skill means that the individual does more difficult work if they're basically doing the same word. But they've got two CV somewhere that says that they have got different skills then that's not accepted on the same with it. A different levels of experience. If somebody is paid more because they're more experience, that can be a justification if it means that they do more complicated work. But otherwise, no on. Then we have red circling And what what a red circling means is that somebody has been moved to a different job or a different department. They are paid in excess of what other people doing that job are paid. But rather than reduce their pay, it's decided toe put a red circle around it, and they don't get an increase in pay until the others have caught up with the annual pay increases. Or however, the pain increases happen on that's allowed as a defense, A songs. It doesn't go on for too long. And then, finally, the location of work So you might have employees in an organization that adopted around the country on may be in London. They're paid more than employees working up in the north of the country, and that's accepted as a defense because it's accepted that it's more expensive to live in Lunda on. Having some sort of London weighting is acceptable. So what other actions could you take apart from writing statement leave, but that you've got to put some data on the company website when we talked about the words that you might put around it. But what else might you want to be doing? Well, club dialogue open with employees If you know that there is an issue on employees, know that this issue talked to employees about it. Seek employees for use about what they think should be done and make sure you've got an action plan to address inequality. Yeah, employment tribunals aren't unreasonable, and if there is an issue that is very expensive for you, to address. If you can show that you're addressing it and it's going to be solved in a year or two, no, in a really long period of time, then at least you. You've got a defense that but you're doing something about it. So don't ignore inequalities. Make sure that that your proactively thinking of what to do remember that you can take positive action on this. Could be something like if you've got a concentration, say, of women in a particularly low paid job in your organization that you guarantee that a certain percentage of them will always get a place on a training course that that will enable them to move up to the next step. You can take that sort of positive action to address inequality, and the other thing is to monitor what's happening now. Of course, the simple fact that you've got to do the gender pay report is part of the monitoring, but also monitoring your recruitment. How many people of different gender are applying for certain jobs? Look, a graduate recruitment. If you have that in the organization, are you attracting an equal number of male and female graduates? If not, why no on monitor what's happening in the organization so that you can have more insight into the data on what the data is telling you. So I hope you found that there are some useful ideas for you there. Thank you for listening.
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