The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has announced organisations that don’t publish their gender pay report will receive ‘unlimited fines’. Experts are expecting a final rush of employers to publish their gender pay report before the deadlines of 30th March for public sector organisations and 4th April for private sector organisations.
The EHRC’s enforcement strategy states all organisations who are unsuccessful in meeting the deadline, will be written to by the commission on 9th April. This gives them 28 days to act in accordance to the law. Organisations who have not complied with the law after the compliance date will be published on social media.
Organisations could come under investigation for a suspected unlawful breach of the gender pay reporting rule if they fail to comply. If this does happen, the business may be taken to court and the EHRC would seek an unlimited fine.
This shows the EHRC are taking non-compliance very seriously. Several businesses may not have enough resources to deal with the consequences of not complying with the law and this is worrying.
Publishing a gender pay report will be a lot cheaper than being taken to court for missing the deadline. It’s important to understand that isn’t just private companies who will be taken to court. Trade unions, private schools, professional trade bodies and charities will also be taken to court and will treated the same way as private companies.
Up until 26th March 2018, 3,756 businesses had published their gender pay figures. Nationwide, JPMorgan and Sainsbury’s Bank have recently reported their gender pay and they all follow the same trend of favouring men in the financial sector.
Nationwide’s mean pay gap was 29% and their bonus pay was 53%, while JPMorgan’s was 54% for mean pay gap and 69% for bonus pay. Sainsbury’s Bank figures were also similar with a reported 39% for mean pay gap and 78% for bonuses.
Click here to read our article: “One in ten organisations will not meet their gender pay reporting deadline”.
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