The number of UK employers failing to report their gender pay gap fell significantly by 71% to just eight companies in 2023, compared to 28 in 2022 and 47 in 2019, according to leading specialist employment law firm Littler.
Nicola James attributes this high compliance level to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which oversees gender pay gap reporting rules. Remarkably, the EHRC achieved these results without issuing any fines.
In the past two years, there have been no “repeat offenders” failing to report their gender pay gap data consecutively. This suggests that the EHRC’s policy of publicly naming non-compliant companies is effective in ensuring compliance.
Nicola James explains: “The EHRC has taken a softly, softly approach to enforcement – rather than issuing fines at the first opportunity, that approach seems to have delivered impressive results. This is unlikely to be the only factor driving compliance and should be viewed in the context of the increasing global focus on pay transparency and pay equity.”
