Guidance

Gender pay gap reporting: changes to enforcement

Guidance for employers on changes to the enforcement of the gender pay gap regulations for 2020/21 (which use a snapshot date of 31 March 2020 or 5 April 2020)

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Changes to the enforcement of gender pay gap regulations due to the impact of Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

What has happened?

Due to the continuing impact of the Coronavirus (COVID‑19) pandemic, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have announced that employers will have an additional six months after the current deadline to report their gender pay gap information.

All employers now have until 5 October 2021 to report their gender pay gap information.

What does this mean?

The changes relate to gender pay gap information that is due to be published by 30 March 2021 for most public authority employers, or 4 April 2021 for private, voluntary, and all other public authority employers. All employers now have until 5 October to report their gender pay gap information and no enforcement action will be taken if they report by then.

Employers should still report their gender pay gap information using the Gender pay gap service. The service will be available to report gender pay gap information for the current reporting year (which used a snapshot date of either 31 March 2020 or 5 April 2020) until 5 October 2021.

Employers will also be able to report gender pay gap information for the next reporting year (which will use a snapshot date of either 31 March 2021 or 5 April 2021) from the beginning of April 2021.

Previous changes for the 2019/20 reporting year

Enforcement was suspended entirely for the 2019/20 reporting year (which used a snapshot date of either 31 March 2019 or 5 April 2019).

Employers do not have to report their gender pay gap information for the 2019/20 year, and will not be expected to do so at a later date.

Should employers wish to report their gender pay gap information for 2019/20 they can still do so on the Gender pay gap service.

Published 23 February 2021