UK employers told to disclose bonuses pay gap

Large employers will be forced to publish information on the average bonuses they pay to their male and female workers, in the latest bid by UK prime minister David Cameron to crack down on the gender pay gap.

The move will cover the public sector as well as private companies.

The UK government also plans to extend its target for women to take up one in four seats on company boards to publicly listed businesses in the FTSE 350 share index. This year for the first time businesses in the FTSE 100 hit the government target for 25 per cent of their board members to be female.

A third of FTSE 350 companies told a FTSE/ICSA survey this summer that they would not reach the target by the end of the year, and nearly two-thirds had no plans for how they might do so.

The 25 per cent target originated in an interim report by Mervyn Davies, published in 2011. Lord Davies is due to publish his final report in the coming weeks.

Mr Cameron said that “true opportunity” could not exist without equality. “There is no place for a pay gap in today’s society and we are delivering on our promises to address it,” he said.

Women are on average paid 19 per cent less than men, although the gap has been almost closed for full-time workers under the age of 40.

Bonuses are “one of the biggest drivers of gender pay discrepancy” according to Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, particularly because they are “one of the least transparent forms of pay”.

“Men often negotiate harder or trumpet their achievements more readily,” she said, welcoming the government announcement.

Nicky Morgan, secretary of state for education and the government’s minister for women and equalities, said the government’s “one nation” philosophy meant “ensuring everyone is given a fair shot to succeed, regardless of their gender”.

“That is why, from the opportunities women are given in schools to the ability to move up the executive pipeline, we are determined to tackle the barriers to women achieving their all,” she said.

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Business has made “huge progress”, Ms Morgan added, with the gender pay gap at its lowest level ever, “but it should appal us that, 100 years on from the suffragette movement, we still don’t have gender equality in every aspect of our society”.

Earlier this year Mr Cameron announced plans to make companies with more than 250 employees publish figures on the average pay gap between men and women. At the time, business leaders expressed scepticism about the effectiveness of the move.

He now plans to extend the gender pay gap reporting rules to the public sector as well.

On Tuesday a new British political party, the Women’s Equality party, launched. It will campaign for equal representation in politics, business and industry. So far it has attracted more than 45,000 members.