14 October 2020

This report provides a comparative analysis of gender pay gap legislation across ten countries. The report was published together with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, and was supported by research provided on a pro bono basis by law firms Latham & Watkins, Castrén & Snellman and BBA Fjeldco, with facilitation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The report recognises the UK as a model of transparency in making employers' pay gaps public. It also finds that the UK also has a higher level of compliance than other countries.

The report recommends:

• The UK should include a requirement for organisations to publish an action plan to make the changes necessary to tackle gender pay gaps. 
• The minimum reporting threshold in the UK should be lowered - currently only companies with more than 250 employees have to provide the required data. This is far higher than the median employer size of 50 set by other countries. 
• The UK should lead the world in providing ethnicity pay gap data 
• The Fawcett Society's Equal Pay Implementation and Claims Bill 2020 sets out legislative changes to strengthen gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting in the UK.

The report did also recognise that the UK is a model of transparency in terms of whether employer's pay gaps are made public, and alongside Germany is leading other countries in that area. The UK also has a high level of compliance, with 100% of eligible employers reporting in 2019, higher than other countries. 

Click here to read the full report