PSED: Gender Pay Gap Public Sector
6th December 2016
According to a report by the University and College Union, the average shortfall faced by female academics was 6,103 a year. According to the union’s data, just eight higher education institutions paid women equally or more than men. At 154 institutions, women are paid less.
That’s why the UK Government have introduced a review of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) to establish whether the Duty is operating as intended.
Here’s everything you need to know about PSED and how your organisations can prepare.
What are the new PSED Regulations?
The new public sector gender pay reporting regulations will be introduced in early 2017, mirroring those already published in draft form for the private and voluntary sector.
The specific duties regulations from The Equality Act 2010 will be amended to incorporate the new mandatory gender pay reporting obligations.
Public sector employers must publish their first reports no later than 4 April 2018 to cover the pay period up to 5 April 2017. Private and voluntary sector employers must publish their reports by 29 April 2018, but these dates may change in the final version of the regulations.
Once the legislation is in place, The Equality and Human Rights Commission will be able to take court action for non-compliance in the public sector.
What is the difference to Equal Pay?
Equal pay means that men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
The gender pay gap is the percentage difference between the average earnings of men and women in an organisation or the labour market.
What are the PSED requirements?
Public bodies in England that are subject to specific PSED requirements will need to publish the same data as large private employers (In Scotland and Wales, this is already mandatory).
They will have to report on the:
- mean and median pay gap between men and women
- mean and median bonus gap
- proportion of men and women who received a bonus in the 12-month period to 30 April in the previous year
- proportion of men and women by salary quartiles.
Although reporting is some time off and only a broad statement is required it may be good to consider what information you will want to add to put the figure in context. For example, are there historical, social or other economic reasons for the gap?
How to prepare for PSED
- Understand your data needs and access to this data. Ensure processes are in place to make gathering and analysis of the data easy
- If you have not then carry out a gender pay audit to identify the likely extent of your gender pay gap and the reasons for it. The headline pay gap figure may be misleading so analyse in depth. This could mean breaking down the data by age, grade, location, full- and part-time working
- Have a strategic approach to address the gender pay gap. An initial gap may be unavoidable but looking to the future allows for actions to support the closing of the gap
- Where possible benchmark against similar organisations to analyse sector issues
- Adopt a holistic approach to pay gaps looking recruitment, learning and development, career progression, working patterns and performance management
Marshall E-Learning provide a number of useful courses aligned to supporting the negation of gender pay gaps including, unconscious bias, equality data, inclusive recruitment and our diversity suite. We’ve also updated our diversity course to include equal pay, reflecting the’?new PSED requirements.
If you find that you require additional training resources in this area please do not hesitate to contact us.
