The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has announced that employers who publish their gender pay gaps will receive limited immunity from investigation. The voluntary measures, which apply to organisations with more than 250 employees, are part of a general drive to increase gender equality at work. Women are, on average, paid 20.2% less than men when the hourly rate between the sexes is compared. The private sector shows a greater gap than the public sector. From the EHRC research it seems that most employers regard pay discrimination as a high priority but only a small number of them report their pay gaps to staff outside of the human resource team. Some actually forbid the discussion of employee pay at all.

It is hoped that increasing transparency in this area will lead to more employee confidence and enhanced corporate reputation. However, the rights of the individual will remain protected with details of individuals pay being excluded from the published information. As an incentive to companies to adopt these reporting measures the Commission is offering a limited degree of immunity from investigation for firms that participate. This immunity will not extend to anti-discrimination cases, but will mean that participating companies are unlikely to receive formal requests for further information during the next two years.