The UK government has issued a legislation to all UK companies employing at least 250 people to publish statistics revealing their gender pay gap, or even the lack of it. The companies will also have to publish the numbers showing the proportion of women at the top posts, along with the proportion at which the men and women receive their bonuses. This movement has been an effort to promote gender equality in the world. The deadline for the private sector employers is April 4, Wednesday midnight.

There are a vast majority of businesses which pay men more than women, a trend followed in most sectors of the economy and within both public and private sector employees. Of the data that has already been published, it is highlighted that 78% of the companies pay more to men, while 13% pay more to women. Only 8% said that they do not practice any gender pay gap. The government has taken this step in a hope that embarrassing by shaming the companies with large pay gaps will force them to take steps to tackle the pay gap.

What do the companies have to reveal?

The figures provided by the companies should include:

  1. Gender pay gap (mean and median averages)

  2. Gender bonus gap (mean and median averages)

  3. Proportion of men and women receiving bonuses

  4. Proportion of men and women in each quartile of the organisation's pay structure

How is the pay gap calculated?

The companies have to disclose the mean and median gaps between hourly wages for a male and female employer. The mean gap is found out by adding hourly wages paid to full-time male and female employees. The total sum is divided by the number of males and females in the organization. This will give an idea of how much women are paid per hour and how much the percentage differs. Bonus payments to men and women are also compared.

Companies who haven't yet revealed the data were sent a final warning and not doing so till the deadline would be considered as breaking the law. Theresa May, the Prime Minister of UK has narrowing the gender pay gap, a part of her domestic policy agenda. UK becomes the first countries to require companies to publish their figures. The entire aim is to encourage women to be part of the employment process with the same remuneration as men. Labour Party MP Stella Creasy recently even started the #PayMeToo movement to see if women are paid at par with the men in their organisations.

Which are the offending companies?

From the published data, it is seen that Ryanair reported a 71.8% gender pay gap. Apple, Stoke City Football Club, Fashion retailers Coast and Phase Eight, the airlines EasyJet (ESYJY) and Virgin Atlantic, and banks including HSBC (HBCYF), Goldman Sachs (GS) and JP Morgan (JPM) are some companies which have larger pay gaps. Facebook too is a major offender with big percentage difference between its hourly pay rate and its bonus pay. But comparing the mean hourly gender pay it had just 0.84 percent difference between the genders.

Which companies have equal gender pay? 

KFC, Matalan, Starbucks, Costa, McDonald's and Primark, British Museum and the armed forces have no gender pay gap.

Signs of change:

After revealing the figures, companies are working up off late to solve the issue and concentrate on equal pay. EasyJet CEO was recently given a pay cut to match the salary of his female predecessor. BBC too is working on the issues. In fact, there have also been companies which are giving more salaries to their female employees as compared to males. Unilever(UL), Toyota (TM), Mars and BP (BP) say women in specific divisions were paid more than their male colleagues. Firms like mattress retailer Sweet Dreams and nursery business Yellow Dot which pay women 46.4 percent and 35.4 percent more per hour respectively.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 04, 2018 01:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).