What to do if you notice a gender pay gap in your school

Here's an explanation of the actions you would need to take if you notice a gender pay gap in your School.

More than 35 years after the UK’s Equal Pay Act was introduced, the Office for National Statistics released a report that found on average women earn around 19.2% less than men in the UK. In an attempt to tackle this issue, the UK Government produced the Equality Act 2010 Regulations 2017 which compels all employers with 250 or more employees in the UK to calculate their gender pay gap, their bonus gap, the proportion of men and women receiving bonuses and the proportion of men and women in each quartile of the pay structure.

Gender pay gap legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year, showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. The employer is then required to publish this data on their school website in addition to the government’s site.

For maintained schools, the governing body is responsible for publishing the Gender Pay Gap information rather than their local authority (LA). Academies, foundation schools and free schools are responsible for publishing their own Gender Pay Gap report.

We already know that education is a female-dominated profession. The latest school workforce census shows that:

• nearly three out of four school teachers and four out of five school employees are female;
• this increases significantly in nursery and primary schools, where 85% of teachers are female compared with 63% in secondary schools;
• 91% of teaching assistants and 82% of support staff are female.

If employers fail to report any gender pay gaps on time or present inaccurate data, they will be found in breach of the Regulations and risk facing legal action from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), leading to court orders and unlimited fines decided on a case by case basis.

So, what should the school do if they notice a gender pay gap?

If your School does notice a gender pay gap, it is advised that you accurately report this. Just because your School has a gender pay gap, does not necessarily mean that you have acted inappropriately or discriminatory. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you add a supporting narrative to your report. This will help explain the information provided and assist the reader in understanding the School’s reasoning of why a gender pay gap is present and what the School intends to do to close it if action is required.

There is, however, corrective action that an employer can take in the hope of reducing the extent of a gender pay gap. This may include introducing more generous family leave policies to encourage fathers as well as mothers to take leave, advertising vacancies on a part-time/job-share basis, reviewing your flexible working policy, or developing initiatives to support working parents returning from maternity or parental leave.

As an EPM client, you will find data supporting the Gender Pay Gap requirements on the reports section of the EPM portal, along with further guidance under the 'Documents' section of the website.

If you’re looking for support with the Gender Pay Gap and legislative requirements or would like to learn more about our reporting functionality, model policies and letters, along with relevant training, please talk to us.