F
FRONT OF HOUSE
Them’s
the rules
Harry Abrams is
a solicitor in the
employment team
at Seddons
WHAT SHOULD EMPLOYERS BE AWARE
OF IN 2019?
This could be the “year of the pay gap”. There’s
already a legal requirement for companies with
more than 250 employees to publish their gender
pay gap calculations annually. But in 2019, further
reporting requirements will be introduced. The
first tranche of gender pay gap reporting made
for interesting reading; what will be even more
so is whether companies have taken steps in the
past year to address any significant reported gap.
It’s expected that the 2019 figures will receive
heavy scrutiny to assess if any wide gap has
been rectified, or has, in fact, widened. These
new figures could have a significant impact on
the reputation of any company in question.
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING THIS YEAR
AROUND PAY AND REPORTING?
While leaders are getting their heads around
the gender pay-gap requirement, January 2019
saw the introduction of executive pay reporting.
This requires UK companies with more than 250
employees to provide calculations demonstrating
the gap between their CEO‘s remuneration
package and that of their ‘average’ employee.
The first set of reports isn’t due until 2020, but
2019 is when companies will have to carry out
the work.
WHAT’S BEHIND THIS?
A drive for transparency and accountability
and the need to address any public concern
over pay inequality. There have been examples
of companies receiving investor and public
backlash in relation to the level of remuneration
their executives received as compared to their
general workforce. Persimmon, for example, was
heavily criticised when its CEO was awarded a
£75m bonus while some employees failed to
receive the living wage.
IS THERE MORE IN THE PIPELINE AROUND
PAY AND LEGAL OBLIGATIONS?
This year may also see confirmation of ethnicity
pay-gap reporting, though, currently, this remains
in a consultation.
10 //
Future Talent
Daddy
issues
95
us
0.6
%
of dads consider
flexible working
important
73
%
are considering
searching
for a flexible job
69
%
think employers do
not realise modern
families have
changed
72
%
fear their employer’s
reaction if they asked for
flexible working
*Survey of 600 dads
from workingdads.co.uk,
January 2019
*Data from Korn Ferry’s
annual Global Salary
Forecast, which analyses
data from over 20 million
job holders in 25,000
organisations across more
than 110 countries.
Searching for answe
Following a 2017 lawsuit by three
female former employees over
systematic pay discrimination,
Google conducted a study into the
wage gap and found that, in the
majority of cases, it was men who
needed compensation for being
underpaid, compared with female
colleagues doing similar work. While
acknowledging that the analysis did
not explore broader questions around
gender inequity, Lauren Barbato,
Google’s lead analyst for pay equity,
commented that it was a “surprising
trend that we didn’t expect”.