With gender pay gap reporting legislation coming into force in October 2016, now is the time that employers need to be putting in place a strict plan of action to ensure that they abide by the new legislation when the time comes.

Many organisations have already put measures into place to avoid any costly legal action that might result with non-compliance, but if you’re just getting started or need an update on where you should be in terms of getting your own process in place here are a few dates to help you on your way.

ASAP
It’s imperative (if you haven’t done so already) to start collecting the data needed to carry out your gender pay gap reporting. You must collect this information on all of your employees that work in Great Britain and the employees whose contracts of employment are governed by UK law.

1st May 2016
By now, you should have started to collect data for the first reporting period. As bonus pay data includes payments from the year up to 30 April 2017, you may need to collect figures on bonus payments from as early as 1 May 2016. Pay data covers payments for the April 2017 pay period.

1 October 2016
The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2016 are expected to come into force on this date. They will require all private and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees to publish prescribed information about their gender pay gap.

1 May 2017
On this date, it is advised that you begin to carry out calculations to determine your gender pay gap results. As you’ve been collecting this data for some time, you should be in a good position to get your report ready before the April 2017 publishing deadline.

30 April 2018
This is the deadline set by the gender pay gap reporting legislation to publish the results of the gender pay gap analysis. This information should be published on your organisation’s website before 30 April 2018. The results must be posted in a publicly accessible manner and include a signed statement that the information is accurate to accompany the results. The results must remain on the website for at least three years.

You must also upload the gender pay gap analysis results onto the Government’s reporting website for assessment.

Although not mandatory, businesses are being urged to include supplementary information when they publish their results to help both the general public and employees understand the findings.

Once this has been done, an action plan should be put into place to help address any gender pay gaps. This is highly encouraged by the Government to ensure gender equality in the workplace.