EXCLUSIVE: 57% of employers measure gender pay differences

peter-brown

EXCLUSIVE: More than half of respondents currently measure differences in gender pay, according to research by Paydata.

Its Autumn 2016 UK reward management survey, which surveyed 140 organisations, found that this is up from 44% a year ago.

In addition, the research found that 33% of respondents will address the cost of paying the national living wage by increasing productivity, and 30% of respondents will increase base pay by consolidating allowances.

The research also found:

  • 69% of respondents believe pay review funding will stay the same despite the influence of Brexit, and 65% say HR and reward project budgets will also remain unchanged.
  • 36-40% of main board director respondents are expecting a bonus, compared to 6-10% of middle management or professional respondents.
  • 93% of respondents who are offered a long-term incentive plan are main board directors, compared to 38% of senior management respondents and 21% of middle management respondents.
  • 42% of respondents are planning to conduct an equal pay audit to understand the data, with 45% planning to address the issues identified.
  • 64% of respondents have had to pay new recruits up to 10% more than existing staff.

Peter Brown (pictured), senior consultant at Paydata, said: “Once more, our survey has emphasised the uncertainty that has persisted in the UK economy since the financial crisis. If anything, the post-referendum world looks even less certain. For pay, this means that organisations are expecting very much more of the same going into 2017.

“The trend is still for budgets to be tight, typically in the 2% to 2.5% range, with little indication that we’re about to see anything dramatically different happen in the medium term. Whether this will still be the case once the expected increase in inflation starts to come through during next year remains to be seen.”