The Government has, at last, laid the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 before parliament. The Regulations were originally due to come into force on 1 October 2016 but will now come into force in April 2017.
The Regulations are made under s78 of the Equality Act 2010 and require employers with 250 or more employees to publish information about the differences in pay between men and women. Employers must publish information no later than April 2018, and then publish data annually. The information must be published on their website, and linked to a Government website which will publish league tables.
The Regulations are incredibly detailed, over-prescriptive but still strangely unclear which may well result in the opposite effect desired by the Government, that of non-compliance.
There will be no civil penalty for non-compliance, however, compliance will be closely monitored and failure to comply will constitute an 'unlawful act' under section 34 of the Equality Act 2006, which will give the Equality and Human Rights Commission the power to take enforcement action.
08 December 2016
