Mind the gender pay gap

How can we let International Women’s Day go by without a timely reminder about gender pay gap reporting? From April 2017, all businesses with over 250 employees will be legally required to publish figures showing whether men earn more than women (or vice versa) in their organisation. You’ll have up to 12 months from April to make sure your gender pay gap results don’t bring colour to the cheeks of any director, male or female.

ACAS have published an excellent guide and fact sheet to help you navigate the gender pay gap reporting minefield. Not only that, they offer a gender pay reporting notification template and a handy ‘myth buster’.

For example, equal opportunities legislation has not eliminated unequal pay – according to the Office for National Statistics, some male financial managers still earn over 32% more than their female counterparts. So the new rules are a welcome move to redress this – and with more success, we hope, than the equal pay laws introduced over 40 years ago!

Most importantly from our perspective here at Amba, this legislation gives you a fantastic opportunity to review your reward strategy. Of course, businesses can and should reward talented employees, regardless of gender. But it doesn’t have to be all about money.

Employee benefits are a great way to show how much you value your people. You can use them to level the playing field (by offering exactly the same benefits to everyone), to incentivise people (by increasing the number or level of benefits available as they progress), or to recognise outstanding individual contributions (by linking reward to bonus points for online shopping, for example).

None of this need cost the earth and it certainly shouldn’t discriminate.

Find out more about the regulations and your obligations from the ACAS guides, and contact us if you’d like to discuss what reward could mean to your business.