Transcript The gender pay gap in large, non-public organisations in the UK www.equalityhumanrights.com Background The Equality and Human Rights Commission opened on 1 October 2007 and took.

The gender pay gap in
large, non-public
organisations in the UK
www.equalityhumanrights.com
Background
The Equality and Human Rights
Commission opened on 1 October 2007
and took over the work of the three
existing Commissions, including work on
the gender pay gap carried out by the
Equal Opportunities Commission.
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Background
The public sector already has a statutory
duty to promote gender equality, including
addressing causes of the gender pay gap.
From April 2011 public bodies with 150+
employees will be required to publish
gender pay gap data.
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Background
The Equality Act 2010 provides the UK
Government with the option of requiring
some non-public organisations to report
information on their gender pay gap:
• private and voluntary organisations with
250+ employees
• not introduced before 2013
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Background
EHRC invited in Spring 2009 to propose
ways of measuring and sharing
information on the difference between
men’s and women’s pay in large private
and voluntary sector organisations, so
securing greater voluntary reporting and
as a driver towards greater transparency.
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Background
EHRC given three specific tasks:
• To carry out a structured consultation
of stakeholders
• To produce an initial baseline report
and similar, annual reports for the next
four years
• To set out proposals for what
companies should report on
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Data sources
Two main statistical sources used:
• Secondary analysis of data from the
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings
(ASHE) 2008
• Survey data collected from a sample of
large private and voluntary sector
organisations
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ASHE Analysis
• Main survey of earnings in UK
• Data on individual employees are collected
directly from employers
• Figures are published each year on the
levels, distribution and make-up of
earnings and hours paid for employees
within industries, occupations and regions
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ASHE Analysis
Measures of gender pay gaps:
• The full time gender pay gap compares
women’s average full time pay and men’s
average full time pay.
• The part time gender pay gap compares
women’s average part time pay with men’s
average full time pay.
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ASHE Analysis
Measures of gender pay gaps (continued):
• The combined gender pay gap compares
average women’s pay with average men’s
pay, in both cases including full time and
part time employees.
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ASHE Analysis
Brief results:
• Gender pay gaps (on all measures) much
higher in private/voluntary sectors
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ASHE Analysis
Pay gaps in the private/voluntary and public sectors
Employees working for large employers, ASHE 2008
Full-time gender
pay gap (%)
Mean-based
Private/voluntary
Public
Difference
Median-based
Private/voluntary
Public
Difference
Part-time gender
pay gap (%)
Combined gender
pay gap (%)
22.2
13.8
8.3
47.2
31.1
16.0
26.4
18.2
8.2
21.6
10.9
10.8
49.8
39.5
10.4
30.8
21.7
9.1
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ASHE Analysis
Brief results:
• Gender pay gaps increase with age
• Women aged 40-49 and 50-59 and
working part-time earn around 50% less
per hour than men working full-time
• The part-time gender pay gap is wider in
the private/voluntary sectors than the
public sector from age 22-29
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Survey of business
Commissioned from IFF Research in 2009:
• Establish baseline information on nonpublic sector employers
• Investigate how steps taken by employers
to measure and make information public
on gender pay gaps differ by sector, size of
organisation, and in England, Scotland
and Wales
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Survey of business
Commissioned from IFF Research in 2009:
• Explore reasons for measuring or making
information public, or not doing so,
among these organisations.
• Investigate what could be done to
encourage employers to measure and
make information public on their gender
pay gap.
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Survey of business
• Telephone surveys with 900 private and
voluntary sector organisations with 250 or
more employees
• Sample taken from around 6,900
organisations of this size and sector in
Great Britain
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Survey of business
Results – level of analysis taking place:
• 43% of organisations had conducted or
were conducting some analysis of their pay
gap. Another 14% were planning to do so.
• Around half of organisations have carried
out job evaluation. 23% have completed an
equal pay audit and 28% have plans to
conduct an audit in the future.
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Survey of business
Results - publication may be an issue:
• Only 16% of organisations that have
completed an equal pay audit share the
results internally, and this decreases to 6%
externally.
• 20% of organisations discourage or forbid
discussions about pay between colleagues
and 49% give staff no information at all.
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Proposals
Employers encouraged to measure and
share information on the differences
between men’s and women’s pay on the
basis of a choice from a menu of options.
The options comprise one narrative
approach and three which involve
quantitative measurement of pay
differences.
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Proposals
The narrative approach would explain the
context, such as female participation rates;
explore and analyse the causes of any
gender pay gaps; describe workforce
involvement in addressing the issues, and
list actions being taken. Narrative would
have to be combined with at least one of
the quantitative measures.
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Proposals
The difference between the median hourly
earnings of men and women calculated by
reference to all female employees’ median
pay with all male employees’ median pay.
This will allow comparison with the public
sector.
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Proposals
The difference between the average basic
pay and total average earnings of men and
women by grade and job type.
The differences between men’s and
women’s starting salaries.
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Next steps
The Commission will be encouraging
voluntary reporting straight away for all
employers within the target group.
The initial baseline report will be built on
to produce the first Transparency
Monitoring Report in November 2010,
followed by further reports annually until
2013.
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