COVID-19 Pandemic Continues to Impact on Gender Pay Gap Reporting
Since the Gender Pay Gap Regulations 2017 came into force, the world has undergone a period of change and disruption that few would have predicted.
In recognition of the disruption caused by the pandemic, enforcement of the gender pay gap reporting deadline for 2019/2020 was suspended, with the following year's 2020/2021 deadline being delayed until 5 October 2021.
With 2020/2021 gender pay gap data now published, the consulting firm PwC has reviewed the latest figures. The pay gap in 2021 is broadly the same as it was in 2019 according to the data (13.3% in 2019/2020 against 13.1% in 2020/2021). To an extent, the lack of progress may be attributed to the significant disruption caused by the pandemic, both in terms of reporting requirements and working practices.
In particular, PwC has commented that changes to the reporting deadline would have had a significant impact on the disclosure rate. Only 80% of the employers who had disclosed their data in 2018/2019, reported their gender pay gap this year. In addition, employees furloughed on reduced pay were not counted as full-pay relevant employees, and were therefore excluded from pay gap reporting. Given the huge numbers of workers who have been furloughed over the past two years (and the possibility that more women than men were likely to have been furloughed), there will be inevitable limitations to this year's gender pay gap data.
Comment
Perhaps understandably, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on both gender pay gap reporting practices, and the conclusions we can draw from the available data. Employers considering their individual positions should place this year's data in the wider context of the impact of the pandemic. Rather than focusing on this year's data alone, it is sensible to consider progress towards longer term diversity and inclusion aims and overall pay gap trends, rather than year-on-year changes.
The Government has not announced any further suspension or delay to gender pay reporting obligations. We therefore expect the next reporting deadline to be 4 April 2022 for private sector employers. The Government is also due to review the efficacy of the Regulations in Spring, which may result in tightened reporting requirements and / or enforcement action against employers who fail to comply with the Regulations.