The gender pay gap means the average difference in pay between men and women within your workplace, or within a given sector or industry.

From April 2018, all public, private, and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees are required to publish a report, every year, on the gender pay gap in their organisation.

The information must be published on the employer's own website, and uploaded via the government's gender pay gap reporting website, results of which can be found here.

While employers cannot be punished for the gap, undertaking this exercise can be a useful activity to highlight where there are potential issues.

If your employer has reported on the gender pay gap and the data shows potential problems issue within your organisation there are a few things you can do with support from Prospect.

• Where the union has a presence or recognition, we can help challenge your employer to take concrete steps. They could introduce blind recruitment, unconscious bias training, and flexible working practices.
• In addition they can also review their career development, promotion, and performance management practices.

Please note that gender pay is not the same as equal pay which means that men and women are paid equally when they perform like work, work rated as equivalent, or work of equal value.

It is possible to have equal pay within your organisation, yet still have a gender pay gap.

Reasons identified for a gender pay gap are:

• one sex dominates better paid positions
• most of the workforce are one sex
• lack of flexible working arrangements
• lack of shared parental pay and leave
• different pay rates for men and women
• more women in part-time roles.

This is just a snap shot of the gender pay gap. There is more information and resources available in our factsheet, which you can download here.