Gender pay reporting: tips for associations

We have seen many housing providers preparing to report their gender pay gap now to help plan for the implications of reporting a gender pay (or bonus) gap to their workforce and the public. So what it is involved?

What does gender pay reporting require?

In summary, the regulations under the Equality Act 2010 require all housing providers with 250 or more employees to publish details of:

• Their gender pay gap (using data as at 5 April 2016). This will highlight in percentage terms the difference between male and female pay across the organisation.
• Their gender bonus gap – that is the difference between men and women’s average bonus pay over a 12-month period.
• The proportion of men and women who received a bonus in the same 12-month period.
• The number of men and women in your four pay quartiles, which will highlight whether one particular gender dominates your highest (or lowest) earners across the organisation.

The information published will be readily accessible to your employees, the public and unions as it will be published on your website. Preparing a well-considered narrative to accompany your data will therefore be critical to explaining any gender pay (or bonus) gaps that you have.

When determining whether an organisation has 250 or more employees, it is not required to aggregate staff numbers across group structures.

Why is gender pay reporting an issue for the housing sector?

Having a gender pay gap is not the same as having an equal pay issue.

However, employees may not see it that way, and for housing providers there can often be circumstances beyond your control that negatively affect the result of a gender pay report, resulting in a larger gender pay gap than you may anticipate.

Some examples of these issues include:

• Discrepancies in pay inherited through group restructures, mergers or TUPE transfers. In particular, the local authority sector has seen significant equal pay issues. Where these issues have been inherited by housing providers, it can also impact on existing pay structures, leading to multi-tier terms and conditions as a result.
• The nature of role profiles within the housing sector often seen a concentration of one gender in particular roles such as grounds maintenance, or care staff, for example, where salaries for such roles are often lower paid. Even with the best intentions and recruitment processes, the gender dominance in one particular area or role of your organisation could highlight a gender pay gap that you did not intend to cause, nor has been influenced by anything other than stereotypes.
• Housing providers are often at the forefront of pioneering flexible working arrangements, including part-time working, childcare voucher schemes and salary sacrifice arrangements. All of these could impact on the outcome of your gender pay gap figures if not carefully considered, particularly where those arrangements or benefits, such as childcare vouchers, are favoured by one particular gender.
• The housing sector is a heavily unionised sector. We anticipate that when gender pay reports are published, Unions may use them as tool to negotiate better terms and conditions for their members, or at least to force employers to address gender pay gap issues.
• Publicity and reputation management. Gender pay reporting is becoming widely reported in the press, not least since the BBC was forced to publish details of its gender pay problem. We anticipate that gender pay reporting will attract significant interest in the first year of reporting.

What challenges are there to closing the gender pay gap?

The data used for gender pay reporting is now historic, as it requires you to use data from the pay period spanning 5 April 2017.

Therefore, even if a gender pay gap now exists, there is nothing you can do to change those results or close your gap prior to reporting in April 2018.

However, employees and unions alike will be interested in what steps you will take to close that gap in forthcoming years and what plans are in plans to address discrepancies that arise.

Closing the gender pay gap is not as easy as simply improving or aligning your pay structure, or even introducing clever recruitment campaigns for those roles typically dominated by one gender. It will require careful consideration as to why a gender pay gap has arisen in the first instance. This could include looking in more detail at where your gender pay gap has originated.

Top tips for housing associations

• Assess your gender pay data and prepare your report now. This enables you to identify whether you have a gender pay gap and where that may have stemmed from.
• Prepare a communications strategy for telling your staff, the unions and the public about your gap and why you have one.
• Consider when to publish your data. Those who prepare their report now have the benefit of more lead-in time to discuss the implications of the gap with staff, before it goes live.
• Consider in detail what information will go into your narrative. This is your opportunity to inform staff and unions why a gap exists and what steps you will take to close the gap.
• Having an understanding at this stage what your gender pay gap looks like enables you to implement a plan to close the gap in future years.
• We are working with many housing providers to analyse their gender pay gap data and ascertain why a gender pay gap may exist.
• This includes gathering data to enable us to identity a ‘benchmark’ gap for the sector, which could help explain to staff why your gender pay gap is not an unusual one.

Kate Watkins, associate, Anthony Collins solicitors