UK is currently intensively engaged in the issue of equal pay for men and women. Equality Minister Lynne Featherstone just announced that employment tribunals would get new power to require gender pay audits. Employers found guilty of unequal pay based on sex discrimination by an employment tribunal, will be ordered to run a gender pay audit to ensure that the discrimination will no longer take place.
The audit will be ordered only if a company has not undergone such audit in the past three years or if it employs less than five people. Details on how the audits will be conducted and what will companies need to submit, will be further discussed within a government consultation. However, as the People Management website informed, they will be announced by the end of this year.
The difference in pay between men and women in the UK is currently 20% in favor of men (although the law on equal pay has existed for 40 years). Last year, the government launched an initiative called Think, Act, Report which aims to motivate companies to voluntary gender pay audits. Introducing mandatory gender pay audits was in consideration too but the government has not agreed with it yet.
-kk-