Why employer statements for gender pay gap reporting are a crucial business tool

In March 2024, for the first time, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published the gender pay gap of private sector employers with over 100 employees. The impact was immediate – from LinkedIn to major flagship media outlets to Instagram – everyone was talking about which employers paid men and women equally and which employers did not, or at least appeared not to. In the battle for talent, the gender pay gap became a new front challenging many employers to convince a sometimes-sceptical public why they are an employer of choice.

WGEA will be publishing private sector employer gender pay gap data for 2023/24 on its website on 4 March 2025. Employers can upload an employer statement to be published with their gender pay gap data from 3 to 24 February 2025. 

Employer statements – essential or optional?

WGEA gave employers their first opportunity to upload an employer statement, to be published with their gender pay gap data, in 2024. Though uploading an employer statement was, and remains optional, many employers took up the opportunity.

There are also commercial benefits of having a reputation in the market as a business engaging in fair and equitable business practices. Depending on the target market, client demographics or tendering requirements, demonstrating commitment to pay equity can give an organisation a competitive advantage.

As well as being published on the WGEA website, an employer statement can be circulated internally ahead of WGEA releasing the data, allowing an employer to start a conversation with its employees about any relevant issues or concerns. 

We recommend an employer statement as an essential business tool. 

Data and reporting changes

This year, employees, potential employees, unions, competitors and, no doubt, the media will be looking closely at gender pay gap progress, now that there is a comparison figure to review between 2022/23 and 2023/24 data. However, there are meaningful differences in both the data and the way the figures are being reported, so it is essential that employers and their managers understand their impact on their gender pay gap and can speak to those changes. 

In 2024, WGEA only published gender pay gaps expressed as a median, not as an average. Depending on an employer’s spread of pay data, this could result in the appearance of a major increase or decrease in gender pay gap. Additionally, in this second year of reporting, employers were required to report CEO data to WGEA, so depending on the gender of the CEO and their salary, this may tend to weight the pay gap data further away from equity. 

The data that will be published this year is the gender pay gap for total remuneration and base salary expressed as:

• an average;
• a median; and
• averages within quartiles.

Preparing an employer statement

To prepare an employer statement, it is essential employers understand their business’ gender pay gap data and its root causes. For example:

• is there a gap present in management remuneration, but all other employees are paid equally?
• is there no gap on base salaries for non-management employees, but a gap arises from their bonus or share allocations?
• is there a gap in one department or sector within the business, but equal in others?
• are there more women than men employed in positions that attract overtime or other penalties?

Being familiar with and able to explain these issues demonstrates a thorough understanding of how men and women are paid in the business and allows an employer to tailor its initiatives to effectively address the root cause of any inequity. That message can be an important feature of both the employee and business value propositions.