Courtney James
Under new regulations that came into force in April 2017, all employers with over 250 employees are required to report their gender pay gap data. The data has shown that more than three out of four UK companies pay their male staff more on average than their female staff and more than half gave a higher bonus to their male staff. The regulations have meant that Britain gender pay gap has fallen from 21.5% to 12.5%.
Gender pay gap in the media
Due to the new legislation, many companies that are in the public eye have come under scrutiny due to the pay gaps present. A publication of the BBC’s highest-earning presenters in July 2017 highlighted an imbalance between the number of the men and women at the top of the list. However, the differences did not end there, the top male presenter was Chris Evans whose salary fell somewhere between £2.2 and £2.25 million whereas the top female presenter was Claudia Winkleman who earnt a sum of between £450,000 and £500,000 in comparison. However, the BBC director Tony Hall has announced since that the BBC’s gender pay gap is one of the lowest in the media in the UK and has come down 20% since last year.
What is the Government doing to help close the gender pay gap?
On the 1st August 2018 The Government Equalities Office published a new ‘What works’ guidance for companies which aims to help improve recruitment processes and the progression of women which in turn would help to close the gender pay gap internally.
Its recommendations included assessing candidates based on the actual tasks that they would be expected to perform in their roles and encouraging salary negotiations by showing salary ranges. This was as a result of evidence that women are less likely to negotiate their pay than men.
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