44 FTSE 100 companies are yet to report their gender pay gap with TWO working days to go
The deadline for UK companies with over 250 employees to report their gender pay gap is Wednesday 4th April 2018. With the UK’s Easter Bank holiday, this leaves just two working days for companies to report.
As the deadline approaches, we’ve seen a last-minute rush to get the numbers out there, but still only 60% of the eligible 9,000 organisations have reported their figures.
FTSE 100 companies are slightly behind the rest, with just over half of companies (56 to be exact) reporting. It is not unusual for stakeholders to look first at the biggest companies when it comes to this type of reporting, as stakeholders are keen to see the approach that companies with a large workforce have taken. Interestingly, most of the FTSE 100 companies that have reported are well-known brands, suggesting that these companies are doing everything they can to keep stakeholders on their side.
Whilst some organisations may have pinned their hopes on their data getting lost in the avalanche of last-minute reporting, ongoing media scrutiny and high stakeholder engagement – from investors to employees – indicates that there are many people waiting to interrogate the figures.
It’s notable that, unlike the UK government’s Modern Slavery Act, mandatory Gender Pay Gap reporting is legally enforceable. With time running out, the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned companies this week that that they will face legal action, stretching to unlimited fines to be decided by courts, for non-compliance.
For the next two days, companies should focus on getting their data ready and providing an accompanying narrative – after that, the focus should be on developing a strategy to close the gap and create a more equal workplace.
Stay tuned for next week, when we’ll be highlighting which industries have the biggest pay gap, and more importantly, what do they plan to do about it?
Interested in your company’s gender pay gap? Look it up here
