Gender Pay Gap Reporting in the Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act received Royal assent in April 2010. Amongst the provisions contained in the Act are those concerned with improving the transparency of pay policies and the reporting of the gender pay gap.

So, how can NorthgateArinso Reward Solutions help you with these requirements?

Public sector organisations will have to publish information about their gender pay gaps, whilst larger private and voluntary sector employers in Great Britain are being encouraged to do so. The aim is for public, private and voluntary sector employers to regularly publish such information. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will be monitoring the level of gender pay reporting, particularly in the private and voluntary sectors and earlier this year it announced that employers who voluntarily report their gender pay gaps will receive up to two years immunity from investigation. However, it is important to note that the Equality Act contains a reserve power that could result in mandatory reporting by 2013 unless sufficient voluntary progress has been made.

At NorthgateArinso we recognise that it is important for organisations to be able to analyse, understand and report on their gender pay gaps. We know that collecting and analysing this data can require a significant commitment of time and resources. We have developed purpose built software tools to facilitate the analysis of your data and limit the effort required. The software is supported by our team of experienced Reward Consultants who can work with you to analyse and interpret the data and develop appropriate action plans.
Professional services offering

We provide professional services to our clients in both the public and private sectors who wish to assess the equity/fairness in their reward practices and their potential equal pay risk exposure.

Our offering covers four levels of equal pay auditing which have been designed to cater for the different demands that you may have. The options range from a detailed Health Check on your equal pay position to a comprehensive Equal Pay Audit including development of appropriate action plans. These are each outlined below with a description of the key areas that we would examine.

Option One

Equal Pay Health Check is a comprehensive report that uses your pay data to establish whether there are any headline equal pay issues. Through a series of graphs, charts and tables the report shows you the areas of risk within your business.

Although the report is not a full equal pay audit, through statistical analysis of the data we can assess the potential liabilities within an organisation, the need for a full audit and highlight hidden discrimination issues.

The report focuses on key areas, such as:

1. Organisation Composition
2. Gender Pay Gap 
3. Distribution of Males/Females 
4. Gender Dominated Roles
5. 'Like Work’ Comparisons
6. Basic and Total Pay Analysis.

The Equal Pay Health Check allows you to ensure you are taking action to understand your gender pay gap. However, the report goes further than simply showing ‘average pay' comparisons by giving more insight as to where problems may lie, and crucially whether a full Equal Pay Audit is required.

Option Two

The next option is a statistical analysis similar to the Equal Pay Health Check where one of our experienced Consultants will use our Equal Pay Reviewer software tool to produce a suite of analyses typically covering:

1. Organisation Composition
2. Gender Pay Gap 
3. Pay Gap analysis by length of service, disability , ethnicity
4. Pay Gaps by job title with multi gender occupancy
5. Additional payments analysis
6. Hotspot investigation drilling down in the key areas where pay gaps are identified
7. Report of statistical analyses
8. Feedback meeting with our Consultant using the Equal Pay Reviewer software.

Option Three

In addition to the features offered in both the previous options, this option includes a review of your HR policies. The statistical analyses are supported by a full commentary on each section, potential liability analysis and recommendations on further action required. We will also carry out feedback meetings in partnership with the organisation.

Option Four

We will carry out a full equal pay audit using our Equal Pay Reviewer software tool which has been designed to meet the requirements of the EHRC five step process. The outputs will include:

• A detailed report with statistical analyses and commentary
• Feedback meetings with one of our experienced Consultants
• Action planning workshops to identify the steps required to address the issues identified through the audit.

Whichever option you choose we will agree with you the scope of the audit and the information requirements. Please note that you will be responsible for providing ‘clean’, complete, accurate and up to date data for the specified population in accordance with a data specification that we would agree with you.
  
 

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