A guide to gender pay gap reporting and what it means for your school

More than 35 years after the United Kingdom's Equal Pay Act was introduced, the Office for National Statistics released a report that found on average women earn around 19.2% less than men in the UK.

In an attempt to tackle this issue, the UK Government has published the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 which will compel all employers with 250 or more employees in the UK to publish details of their gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of men and women, expressed relative to men’s earnings. This is different to equal pay reporting. For maintained schools the Governing Body is responsible for publishing their own gender pay gap information rather than their local education authority. Academies and free schools are also responsible for publishing their own gender pay gap report.

The areas schools and academies need to report on are:

• the difference in mean pay between male and female employees
• the difference in median pay between male and female employees
• the difference in mean bonus pay, over a 12 month period, between male and female employees
• the difference in median bonus pay, over a 12 month period, between male and female employees
• the proportion of male and female employees receiving a bonus payment during the 12 month period
• the proportion of male and female employees in each quartile band

We have produced a guide to gender pay gap reporting for schools and academies to outline the requirements and information on how to calculate the gender pay gap. This is now available to download. This information makes sure you are compliant with the new Regulations but the benefits to the organisation come when they do something about the results and work to close the gender pay gap. Download now! → For more information and advice on the document please contact the Service Desk on 0345 222 1551 • Option 6 or email hrservicedesk@schoolbusinessservices.co.uk