Countdown to mandatory gender pay gap reporting

Large businesses in the region are being warned that they need to prepare in advance of new legislation that is coming into force next month. The new rules require private and voluntary sector employers with at least 250 employees to publish information about their gender pay gap by 25 March 2016.

The Office of National Statistics has said that the gender pay gap has changed “relatively little” over the past four years. The gap between men and women’s pay for full-time workers was 9.4% in April 2015 compared with 9.6% in 2014.

The Prime Minister and the Women and Equalities Minister, Nicky Morgan MP, have announced new measures as part of wider plans (which have not as yet been published), to address gender pay inequality and "end the gender pay gap in a generation".