The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has announced that enforcement of gender pay gap reporting continues to be delayed and will start again on 5 October 2021. The delay is due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19.
The changes relate to gender pay gap information that is due to be published by 30 March 2021 for most public authority employers, or 4 April 2021 for private sector and voluntary sector employers. Providing employers report their gender pay gap information by 5 October 2021, then no enforcement action will be taken in the meantime.
Equality campaign group The Fawcett Society led a call for the government to reinstate enforcement of gender pay gap reporting as soon as possible to ensure the pandemic “does not turn back the clock” on the progress made in narrowing the difference in average male and female pay. Chief executive Felicia Willow said: “We know more women have been furloughed, have lost their jobs, have had their hours cut, and have had greater disruption due to home schooling than men. And, we know that the impact on disabled women, black women, and other minority groups has been even worse. Gender pay gap reporting is one way that employers can identify issues that need action. A year ago, we didn’t know what we faced. Now, we know that we face significantly worsening inequality that may take decades to redress. There is no reasonable argument supporting the claim that gender pay gap reporting should remain unenforced in 2021.”
Employers should still report their gender pay gap information using the Gender Pay Gap Service on gov.uk. The service will be available to report gender pay gap information for the current reporting year (which used a snapshot date of either 31 March 2020 or 5 April 2020) until 5 October 2021. Employers will also be able to report gender pay gap information for the next reporting year (which will use a snapshot date of either 31 March 2021 or 5 April 2021) from the beginning of April 2021.
Previous changes for the 2019/20 reporting year
Enforcement was suspended entirely for the 2019/20 reporting year (which used a snapshot date of either 31 March 2019 or 5 April 2019).
Employers do not have to report their gender pay gap information for the 2019/20 year, and will not be expected to do so at a later date.
Should employers wish to report their gender pay gap information for 2019/20 they can still do so on the Gender pay gap service.
