Eight ways to understand your organisation's gender pay gap
Key questions for employers to ask that will help you to identify different potential causes of your gender pay gap.
Published 17 April 2020
Last updated 17 April 2020 - see all updates
Contents
- Overview
- Do people get ‘stuck’ at certain levels within your organisation?
- Is there gender imbalance in your promotions?
- Are women more likely to be recruited into lower paid roles in your organisation?
- Do men and women leave your organisation at different rates?
- Do particular aspects of pay (such as starting salaries and bonuses) differ by gender?
- Do men and women receive different performance scores on average?
- Are you doing all that you can to support part-time employees to progress?
-
Are you supporting both men and women to take on caring responsibilities?
Are you supporting both men and women to take on caring responsibilities?
Being able to care for others should be a choice open to both men and women, and is a core issue when it comes to gender equality It is therefore worth reviewing your policies and considering your workplace culture to ensure that employees are supported to take on caring roles and responsibilities if they choose to.
To assess how well you are doing on this:
-
Look at the uptake of flexible working, Shared Parental Leave and paternity leave, including by
gender.
If there is low take-up of these policies by men, this suggests that men and women in your organisation are working in quite different ways, which could contribute to your gender pay gap.
-
Use your staff survey to assess your organisational culture and look for differences between genders.
For example:
- Do employees feel supported to take up flexible working?
- Do employees feel that working flexibly (or part-time) is a barrier to progression?
- Do employees know what flexible working and parental leave options are available to them?
-
Raise awareness about your Shared Parental Leave, paternity leave and flexible working offer by disseminating clear guidance, or launching a campaign.
-
Consider enhancing pay for those on paternity leave and Shared Parental Leave to encourage male employees to play a role in childcare.
-
Advertise all jobs as flexible by default, unless there is a strong business case otherwise.
Next steps
Developing an action plan
Once you have identified where any issues might lie, our Actions to Close the gender pay gap guidance provides more information to help you to develop a robust, evidence‐based Action Plan and ensure you are doing all you can to reduce your organisation’s GPG.
Find out how to create an action plan to close your gender pay gap (pdf)
Published 17 April 2020
Last updated 17 April 2020