Leading Employment Lawyer Says Equal Pay Is A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

The Government has said today that companies in the private and voluntary sectors with more than 250 employees will in the future have to publish gender pay gap information.

To coincide with the announcement, a consultation paper on the detail of the regulations to be made under the Equality Act 2010 has also been launched.

The consultation document, ‘Closing the Gender Pay Gap’, seeks views on the level of detail of gender pay gap information that should be required. Amongst other things, it asks whether the information should be the overall difference between the average earnings of men and women as a percentage of men's earnings, or whether it should be broken down by full-time and part-time employees, or by grade or job type.

At present the gender pay gap stands at 19.1% and it is expected that 10 million workers across the country will be covered by the new rules.

Commenting on the move, Prime Minister David Cameron said it will "cast sunlight on the discrepancies and create the pressure we need for change, driving women's wages up".

The consultation closes on 6 September 2015.