Gender Pay Gap Report Deadline Extended

The UK Government has announced that due to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the gender pay gap reporting deadline for the 2020/21 reporting period has been extended from 4 April 2021 to 4 October 2021.

You will recall that the Gender Pay Gap reporting requirement for the 2019/20 period was suspended entirely last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government has confirmed that there is no requirement to report on those figures at all.

However, despite this suspended deadline, around 50% of companies still voluntarily reported their data in April 2020 for their 2019/2020 year, highlighting the benefits of reporting and publishing pay gap figures (most notably, from a reputational standpoint).

You may take a similar view this year, and seek to voluntarily publish your figures before the clock starts on the Government’s enforcement action from 5 October 2021. However, this latest Government decision gives you who are legally obliged to file your Gender Pay Gap statistics (that is, if you have 250 or more employees) an extra six months to do so, without fear of enforcement action taking place.

But – notwithstanding the extension - what should you be doing now?

  • Ensuring that figures are accurate;

  • Understanding the causes of gender pay gaps;

  • Identifying what, if any, action needs to be taken; and

  • Drafting appropriate accompanying narratives.

Whilst some of you may already be well ahead in your 2020/2021 gender pay gap reporting preparations (and may still want to report your figures over the coming weeks, not least for the reputational benefits mentioned), a number of you – perhaps whose figures are heavily impacted by COVID-19 – will find this additional time useful.

where workforces have been significantly affected by COVID-19, the relevant pay data will likely present a distorted picture of the gender pay gap in our workforce.

As such, if the impact is significant, you can elect to add a section into the accompanying narrative, in order to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on your figures and detail what action is being taken to close the gap.

Sam Brown