BBC Gender Pay Gap Coverage Highlights Importance of Explaining Data

... employers with more than 250 staff may be considering how best to present their own gender pay data on or before 4 April 2018.

The BBC is in the unusual position of being required to publish the names and pay bands of high earning staff under the terms of its Royal Charter. With only 34 women on a list of 96 names, difficult questions around the BBC's gender pay gap were inevitable.

Private sector employers caught under the Gender Pay Gap Regulations are not required to publish this same level of detail. Individual identities and pay bands will be protected, and annual salaries will be distilled down into hourly rates of pay. Nevertheless, the BBC disclosure exercise does demonstrate the importance of pre-empting potential criticisms of the data and using the opportunity, through the inclusion of detailed narrative, to place pay data into context. This may include reflecting not only on your organisation's current data, but also on what measures can be put in place over the coming years to reduce any gender pay gap over time.

If you would like to discuss your gender pay data, your reporting obligations under the Gender Pay Gap Regulations or how best to explain your data when reporting, please do contact Alice Reeve in our Education team on 0117 314 5383.