Great Britain: gender pay gap reporting requirement suspended due to the coronavirus crisis

On 24 March the UK government announced that large businesses would not have to report their gender pay gaps by the 05 April deadline. Minister for Women & Equalities, Liz Truss, and EHRC Chair, David Isaac. Equality and Human Rights Commission stated, “We recognize that employers across the country are facing unprecedented uncertainty and pressure at this time. Because of this we feel it is only right to suspend enforcement of gender pay gap reporting this year.” To date over 3,000 employers have published their gender pay gaps for 2019 online, or the equivalent of 26% of companies with at least 250 staff. Initial reports show the finance sector remains the worst offender (c.f. article No. 11708). The reporting suspension has the HR specialist body, the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), worried, as it urged employers to voluntarily publish their gender pay gaps as soon as the crisis is over. Charles Cotton, senior reward adviser at the CIPD argued, “The coronavirus stands to have a disproportionate impact on women in the labour market, because of the high proportion of women working in retail and hospitality,” and continued with a warning of the “risk of losing momentum in our efforts to close the gender pay gap. In 2019 the data showed that 78% of companies pay women less than men (c.f. article No. 11073).