In Northern Ireland, a consultation on the gender, ethnicity and disabilities pay gap has been launched.
Although legislation has been in place in Northern Ireland since 2016, allowing for the reporting of gender pay gaps, regulations that would have formally mandated it were never implemented.
In 2017, the UK introduced gender pay gap reporting, which requires companies with more than 250 employees to report an annual snapshot of their median hourly wage gap between men and woman.
The Department for Communities in Northern Ireland has now asked companies and other relevant organizations to comment on a draft proposal for regulations. These proposals would mirror the existing reporting requirements in Britain.
The Department proposes that employers with 250 employees or more (although the number is subject to consultation) be required to “publish information about the pay and benefits of employees in order to show whether there are any differences between the pay for male and female employees”.
The proposed regulations would require them to identify the gender pay gap, analyse their drivers, examine how their policies or practices have contributed to it, and take remedial actions.
According to the Annual Survey of Hours and Wages (ASHE) in Northern Ireland for 2023, the pay gap between men and women for all employees was 7.8%. This is a small increase from the 7.5% difference recorded in 2022.
The Northern Irish Government also wants to hear your views on the reporting of ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
The consultation does not go into detail, but it proposes that employers be required to publish statistics about workers in each pay band based on ethnicity and disabilities.
The document says that if the information is available, it should be recorded.
Participants are also asked to comment on the provision of information about pay gaps relating worker’s disabilities. This will form the basis for more detailed provisions when the regulations are published.
Currently, the government does not have plans to close ethnicity or disability gaps.
Lewis Silkin says that the new regulations will affect 345 employers. The law firm Lewis Silkin predicts that the regulations will come into effect in early 2027, if approved by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Employers would then publish their first report in 2028 reflecting a snapshot date of 2027.
The deadline to respond to the consultation is January 31, 2025.
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