Northern Ireland consults on gender, ethnicity and disability pay reporting

by Personnel Today

Despite having legislation in place since 2016 to allow for the adoption of gender pay gap reporting in Northern Ireland, regulations to formally mandate it never came to fruition.

Gender pay gap reporting was introduced in the rest of the UK in 2017, requiring companies with 250 staff or more to provide an annual snapshot of the median hourly pay gap between men and women.

The Department for Communities in Northern Ireland is now asking companies and relevant organisations to comment on draft proposals for regulations, which would largely mirror existing reporting requirements in the UK.

The department proposes requiring employers with 250 or more relevant employees (although this number is subject to the consultation) “publish information relating to the pay of employees for the purpose of showing whether there are differences in the pay of male and female employees”.

Under the proposed regulations, they would have to identify gender pay gaps, analyse the drivers behind them, explore how their policies and practices have contributed to the gaps, and take remedial action.

According to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) for Northern Ireland in 2023, the gender pay gap for all employees in Northern Ireland was 7.8%, a slight increase on the 7.5% gap recorded in 2022.

As part of the consultation, the Northern Irish government also wants to gather views on ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.

Although the details are not expanded, the consultation proposes that employers will be required to publish information including statistics on workers within each pay band in relation to ethnicity and disability.

There is currently no legal requirement to record an employee’s ethnic origin in Northern Ireland, but the document states that where information is known, it should be recorded.

The consultation document also seeks comments from participants on providing pay gap information relating to worker’s disability which will inform the basis of more detailed provisions once the regulations are published.

While it proposes that action plans will be required on how employers plan to address gender pay differences, these are not on the agenda for ethnicity and disability gaps currently.

According to law firm Lewis Silkin, around 345 employers will come under the scope of the new regulations. Subject to approval by the Northern Ireland assembly, the regulations would come into force in early 2027 at the earliest, it predicts.

This would mean employers publishing their first reports in 2028, reflecting a 2027 snapshot date.

The deadline for responses to the consultation is 31 January 2025.