The importance of gender pay gap reporting
The issue of gender pay equity is never far from the news headlines and this is viewed by many people as a positive thing. The more attention given to the sensitive and controversial issue of equal pay the better, is the view of many people who feel it is important to work for progressive organizations.
In recent years, there has been an increase in activity and legislation in the gender pay equity space-some governments have taken proactive steps and introduced mandatory gender pay gap reporting. In such instances, there is a legal and regulatory requirement for companies above a certain size to produce documented and transparent reporting on gender pay gaps within their organization.
Many countries and governments are viewing this as an opportunity to be on the right side of history when it comes to gender equality and are therefore taking proactive steps to introduce long overdue legislation. It varies from country to country but there is a growing trend of increased lobbying for reform and action plans in this important area of working life.
In this article, we will discuss the importance of gender pay gap reporting and why it may be in the interests of multinational companies around the world to get ahead of legislation, especially as such legislation seems to be on the rise.
Gender pay gap reporting is becoming mandatory
For many organizations, gender pay gap reporting and detailed analysis on gender pay wage gap issues within their organization falls into the category of ‘nice to have’. But, what if you work in a country where governments introduce new legislation that make this level of reporting a mandatory and legal requirement? This changes things and there is a need to invest in a digital platform or technology stack that can produce this level of detailed and transparent reporting.
Human resources, global payroll or compliance department's may be tasked with delivering this gender pay gap reporting on a quarterly basis. it will almost certainly need to feature in any year end documentation such as annual reports and financial disclosure data. If the company is a public one, then this information will be available to the press and local media. If it is a mandatory requirement, organizations will be held to a certain standard and will likely face penalties if they fail to produce the mandatory reporting. In general, they will find themselves open to a much deeper level of scrutiny and examination when it comes to gender pay gap equity and it is therefore a matter of responsibility to have a diligent and transparent process around the delivery of this crucial reporting.
Last month, the Republic of Ireland announced that gender pay gap reporting would become a legal requirement for companies above a certain size. Countries like France, Spain and the UK already have such legislation in place and a trending data suggests that several other countries will be feeling the pressure to follow suit and introduce similar equality act legislation.
This all points to a future scenario where the mandatory reporting of gender pay gaps will become commonplace at multinational organizations around Europe and beyond. It may not happen overnight, but it is very likely coming. Multinational organizations are therefore strongly advised to take proactive steps to ensure that their payroll reporting tools are of sufficient standard to produce the kind of nuanced, detail and comprehensive pay gap reporting that is likely to be needed in the near future
Values and culture
Even if gender pay gap reporting is not a mandatory and legal requirement, there is a growing number of companies who feel that gender pay equity should be a part of the culture and values within the organization.
Companies prioritizing gender pay equity as part of their values are therefore committing to better and more transparent reporting around gender pay. This is resulting in increased investment in digital platforms, digital transformation and reporting suite tools that are designed to extract global payroll data from a variety of different systems including the HCM and financial software in operation at the organization.
Values are things that are easy to talk about but less easy to implement in practice. Company employees are paying attention to gender bias and want to see their leadership teams act on the values and empower the employees to also act on them. They will want proof that there is something of substance behind the words and will demand to see transparent reporting on gender pay gap as well as action on any apparent pay disparity or pay discrimination.
Companies who are truly committed to addressing any imbalance in the area of gender pay equity will not have any concerns about delivering transparent reporting to prove progress is being made when it comes to pay equity.
Global payroll reporting, delivered on a cloud platform by a suite of innovative digital tools has the capability to deliver consolidated, detailed and analytical insights into gender pay gap divides at organizations.
The reporting technology is there
Gender pay gap reporting is far more feasible when you have in place a digital global payroll platform that comes with a suite of smart reporting tools designed to extract data and insight from global payroll operations.
The Payslip global payroll control platform features an innovative tool called the global reporter. This tool is specifically designed for global payroll reporting and comes with a range of filter options that enabled global payroll professionals to deep dive into key pay elements such a salary, job title and employee gender.
Very large organizations can then track and monitor gender pay gap analysis by a country, entity and even region. This information can then be transferred to important board level reporting so that the C-Suite executive and leadership teams get a clear understanding of what progress has been made in gender pay gap at their organization and how much work is still left to be done.
Without pay gap analysis and clear gender pay gap reports, companies are flying blind and making guesses around where they stand when it comes to gender pay equity. This is not good enough if gender pay equity is prioritized as a company value and it is certainly nowhere near good enough if there is a mandatory and legal requirement to produce this kind of transparent reporting.
The good news is that the technology exists, and the Payslip platform comfortably integrates with the vast majority of human resource HCM systems as well as quite a number of popular financial software packages. This means that some integration activity can result in important data flows between global payroll, HR and finance enabling bigger picture analysis as well as comprehensive reporting on gender pay gaps across an entire organization.
If your organization has committed to fair and transparent gender pay gap reporting or you work in a country which has recently been subjected to new legislation around gender pay gap reporting, then our global payroll control platform reporting functionality is something that should be of significant interest to you. Our team is ready and waiting to talk you through exactly what our global reporter tool can do for gender pay gap reporting as well as a host of other important global payroll related reports. We would be happy to show you a demo anytime you want so get in touch today and help your organization make the leap towards consolidated and transparent gender pay gap reporting.
For information on the Payslip Platform contact us today.