Does your business operate in the UK and employ more than 250 employees? If you answer yes, then your business is required to submit an annual gender pay gap report. This report essentially shows the median pay gap between male & female employees.

To help explain what the median gender pay gap is, imagine all women in your business are standing in one line, from lowest paid by hour to highest, and all men employees doing the same in another line. The median gender pay gap is the percentage difference in hourly pay between the woman and man in the middle of both lines.

Promoting gender equality in the workplace is beneficial to your business.¹ Joel Peterson, Chairman of JetBlue Airways sums it up nicely: “Men and women are equal, not identical”. His quote points out that diversity in opinions and ways of thinking is required for a successful business. Gender diversity brings varied perspectives, produces more holistic analysis of issues a business faces, leading to improved decision-making.

Ways to improve gender equality can include reviewing jobs advertisements which encourage both men and women to apply, placing greater value on soft skills and abilities, and providing different forms of mentoring to support the development of women for leadership roles.¹

Data transparency is an important part of the UK’s gender pay gap reporting requirements.² The UK government put these requirements in place to boost activity to close gender pay gaps. Having a deadline specifically for this report ensures the published data and the actions organisations are taking to close the gap, receives the attention it needs. The requirement to publish on the government pay gap viewing portal, as well as company websites, makes it easier for the public to access, understand and act upon the data.

According to the latest data from Glassdoor, the gender pay gap has narrowed slightly in the UK, US, France and Australia, showing improvement since Glassdoor's study in 2016.

Today, the unadjusted pay gap between men and women in the UK is 17.9%, meaning women earn, on average, 82p for every £1 men earn. This is a 5.0% reduction in the unadjusted pay gap from three years ago, when women earned, on average, 77p for every £1 men earn.

Similar to the US, pay gaps have slightly improved over the past three years in the UK and Australia, but not in Germany. Of the eight countries in the 2019 study, Germany has the largest unadjusted pay gap (22.3%), while France has the smallest unadjusted pay gap (11.6%).

We at Impellam welcome the annual requirement to publish gender pay comparisons – it offers an important opportunity to reinforce our existing work, as well as provides stimulus for continuous improvement.

“This report reminds us that we must seek further opportunities to stretch our ambitions and that there is more we can do. We will continue to encourage honest discussions that represent all our people, regardless of gender or level of seniority, so that we can truly understand the barriers that prevent fulfilment of potential.” – Julia Robertson, Impellam Group CEO

Last year, Impellam Group had an overall median gender pay gap of 2.00%, which includes our permanent and temporary workers. This year, our median gender pay gap has improved slightly to 1.55%. Among our permanent employees our median gender pay gap is 21.93%. We are uncomfortable with this gap, even though it is largely driven by wider norms in society. Closing our gender pay gap is not a ‘quick fix’, and requires continuous work over the long-term.

Our vision at Impellam is to be the world’s most trusted staffing company – trusted by our people, our customers and our investors in equal measure. A key part of building trust with all of our stakeholders is transparency.  We see it as our responsibility both to understand and to address the root causes of inequality to ensure that all Impellam people, including our candidates, are able to reach their full potential and do work which gives them fulfilment and a sense of purpose.

At Impellam Group, we work across a wide variety of different sectors; from education, to life sciences, to office work, and we understand both the challenges and opportunities workplace diversity can present. If you’d like to build a better business through diversity, regardless of your sector, Impellam Group have a brand that can help.

Notes

1 www.gethppy.com/hrtrends

2 www.parliament.uk