• Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
Call us now on: 01383 272000
Thornber Employment Law
  • Home
  • Employers
    • Disciplinary & Grievance
    • Harassment & Discrimination
    • Unfair Dismissal
    • Redundancy
    • Performance and Absence Management
    • Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) Regulations
    • Industrial Action and Strikes
    • Termination Negotiations
    • Settlement Agreements
    • Agency and Atypical Working
    • Pensions
    • Employment Tribunals
    • Fees
  • Individuals
    • Disciplinary & Grievance
    • Harassment & Discrimination
    • Unfair Dismissal
    • Redundancy
    • Employment Tribunals
    • Settlement Agreements
    • Restrictive Covenants
    • Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) Regulations
    • Fees
  • HR Support
    • Employment Contract & Staff Handbook Drafting
    • Employment Law Training for HR Professionals in Scotland
    • Disciplinary & Grievance
    • Performance and Absence Management
    • Investigations
    • Fees
  • Settlement Agreements
  • Latest News
    • Top Tips
      • How do I deal with short term absence?
      • How do I dismiss an employee?
  • What Clients Say
  • About
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Gender Pay Gap – Do you want others to know how much you earn?

January 30, 2018/in news /by Benjamin Thornber

Gender Pay Gap – Do you want others to know how much do you earn?

2018 has started with a bang when it comes to the gender pay gap issue.

News headlines abound everywhere.  Firstly, at the BBC with Carrie Gracie resigning over pay equality with colleagues, and John Humphries taking a `voluntary’ massive pay cut from between £600k – £650k to between £250-£300k.  Over at Easyjet, the new CEO took a “pay cut” to £740,000 to match what the former female CEO was earning.

All this is on the back of the rules last year which meant that all organisations employing more than 250 employees much report on their gender pay gap – which affects of over 9,000 private sector employers.  The deadline is April this year, but many companies have published ahead of schedule, as was widely reported earlier this month: www.bbc.co.uk/news.

Reporting Errors

At first glance, the new focus on transparency would be seeming to be having an effect already – witness what is going on at the BBC.  But we will have to see whether this is the case in the long run and across all organisations.

There is a lot of evidence that the old adage: `What gets measured gets done’ is something of a fallacy.  It may be more accurate to say that `what gets measured often gets gamed’.  How much `gaming’ will companies be doing to make sure their data is not as bad as it looks?  At least some, surely.

For example, Hugo Boss initially reported that it had no pay gap between men and women, but the company was forced to revise its data to show a mean gender pay gap of 33% and a median gender pay gap of 77%.  That’s quite some reporting error.

More women into traditional mens’ roles

No doubt a lot of good may come out of the new reporting requirements.  It may encourage some companies to review whether their recruitment and promotion practices are gender-biased, and whether they have true equal pay for equal work.

But I remain sceptical as to whether the reporting requirements will do anything to encourage more women into traditional `male’ industries such as engineering and IT, or men into primary school teaching or nursing.  And without other measures such as universal free child care, women will continue to have longer career breaks than men.

For what it’s worth, my view is that although the new reporting requirements will have some effect, it will not be revolutionary; real change will only come when there is true transparency of earnings –  at all levels and not just high earners.  If we all knew what our colleagues were being paid, it would force both employer and better paid colleagues alike to justify their pay.

Are you happy for others to know exactly what you earn?

Related

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://thornberlaw.dns-systems.net/wp-content/uploads/Untitled-design-3-300x105.png 0 0 Benjamin Thornber https://thornberlaw.dns-systems.net/wp-content/uploads/Untitled-design-3-300x105.png Benjamin Thornber2018-01-30 18:08:292018-01-30 18:08:29Gender Pay Gap – Do you want others to know how much you earn?

Enquire

Areas of expertise

  • Agency and Atypical Working
  • Ben’s Top Tips for HR matters
    • How do I deal with short term absence?
    • How do I dismiss an employee?
  • Disciplinary & Grievance
  • Employment Contract & Staff Handbook Drafting
  • Employment Law & HR Support Fees
  • Employment Law for Employers & Business
  • Employment Law for Individuals
  • Employment Law Training for HR Professionals in Scotland
  • Employment Tribunals
  • Harassment & Discrimination
  • HR Support
  • Industrial Action and Strikes
  • Investigations
  • Pensions
  • Performance and Absence Management
  • Redundancy
  • Restrictive Covenants
  • Settlement Agreements
  • Termination Negotiations
  • Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) Regulations
  • Unfair Dismissal

Contact:

01383 27 2000

info@thornberhrlaw.co.uk

© Copyright Thornber Employment Law Ltd

Ben Thornber is a solicitor with a current practising certificate.  He meets the requirements of a being `qualified lawyer’ and `relevant adviser’ for the purposes of advising on settlement agreements.  Any legal and HR advice Ben Thornber provides through Thornber HR Law is covered by a contract of insurance.  However, Thornber Employment Law Ltd (t/a Thornber HR Law) is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Law Society of England and Wales or the Law Society of Scotland

Privacy Policy

Call us on:

Dundee – 01382 339071
Dunfermline – 01383 272000
Edinburgh – 0131 644 3445
Glenrothes – 01592 373991
Grangemouth – 01324 289105
Kirkcaldy – 01592 373991
Livingston – 01506 309771
Perth – 01738 310565
Stirling – 01786 608668

Ben Thornber is a professional and competent employment lawyer. Having worked with Ben for only 3 months, he has quickly gained a grasp of how we work and what our business needs are.

Emma NivenManaging Director, Loch Leven’s Larder

You were highly recommended to us, with regards to our re-draft of our Contract of Employment and Handbook. From the start to the finish you were very helpful, friendly, efficient and professional. We will not hesitate in recommending Thornber HR Law to anyone. Thanks once again for a first class job.

Wendy Turnbull

Ben, many thanks for all your help with our employment contract review. For a change it was really good dealing with a real expert who knows exactly what he is talking about.

David Shuster Managing Director, Managed IT Experts

I can safely say that Ben stands out head and shoulders above anything that even the largest Blue Chip companies can throw at you.

Philip OldhamCEO Lyle and Scott Ltd

The service provided by Ben was exceptional from the initial meeting to completion. I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending and using Ben Thornber HR Law.

Alexander Cruickshank, Director AMC Removals Managing Director, Managed IT Experts
The advice we receive from Thornber HR Law is straight forward, legally sound and commercially viable. Ben is always available and very easy to understand and communicate with.
Tommy BrodieSenior Agent, NFU Mutual Insurance

I would highly recommend Ben and Thornber HR Law as a company for businesses both large and small

Neil AlexanderDirector, Eclipse-IP

The service that you gave was timely, needed and most importantly ensured piece of mind

John Somerville JM Services

Related

It’s not all about the celebrities – sexual harassment What is the Government doing about the Gig Economy?
Scroll to top

This website uses cookies to improve user experience

OKLearn More

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Accept settingsHide notification only