Gender Pay Gap Reporting Should Be a Wakeup Call For SMEs

The gender pay gap has been hitting the headlines recently, with both the civil service and BBC revealing the discrepancies between what men and women are paid in their organisations.

This is part of a new legal requirement for all UK companies with more than 250 staff to track and report on their gender pay gap.

Sarah Begley of The Wilkes Partnership’s employment law team, comments:

“As they are not subject to mandatory gender pay gap reporting, SMEs might think this is an area they don’t need to pay much attention to. However, just because reporting on gender pay isn’t compulsory for smaller businesses, it does not mean you should neglect striving for pay equality amongst your staff.

“The recent removal of tribunal fees make it much easier for any employee to make a claim against an employer they think has not complied with equal pay or gender discrimination regulations. So, employers should make sure they are doing everything they can from a legal perspective to ensure that employees of any gender are treated and remunerated equally.

The best place to start is to review your HR policies to make sure they are up-to-date and comply with current regulation, and it’s also worth undertaking your own benchmarking exercise to establish what, if any, gender pay gap there is in your organisation.”

Wilkes’ employment team are currently offering businesses the opportunity to purchase a comprehensive set of HR Polices & Procedures at a fixed price.

To discuss this service, contact the employment team on 0121 233 4333 or email us at [email protected]