Step 3: publish your gender pay gap report

To publish your gender pay gap report, you must:

• submit your figures through the government gender pay gap service
• provide a written statement to the government gender pay gap service (if you are a private, voluntary or public-authority employer not specified in Schedule 19 to the Equality Act 2010). Your written statement must confirm that the report is accurate and should be signed by the most senior employee in your organisation, such as a director, designated member, general partner, partner, member of governing body or senior officer
• publish your report and, if required, your written statement, in a prominent place on your public-facing website for three years from the date of publication (if you don’t have a website, publish your figures on an intranet and / or parent company website and make sure your employees are made aware of the report)

We recommend that you take these additional steps when publishing your gender pay gap report:

Publish a supporting narrative

A supporting narrative helps those reading your report and signal your commitment to closing your gender pay gap. You can include:

• explanations for the figures
• workforce statistics
• detailed analysis
• an overview of the steps you have taken to understand and address your gender pay gap.

Include an employer action plan

An employer action plan explains how you intend to tackle your gender pay gap. This has a number of business benefits, including:

• attracting a wider pool of potential applicants
• enhancing your reputation for being a fair and progressive employer
• increasing productivity among a workforce that feels valued and engaged in a culture committed to tackling inequality.

Gender pay gap calculations are based on employer payroll data from a specific date each year, known as the ‘snapshot date’. By law you must publish your data every year within 12 months of the relevant snapshot date:

• For specified public-sector employers, the snapshot date is 31 March each year. The deadline for reporting and publishing your gender pay gap information is 30 March of the following year. Find out more from Gender pay gap: our enforcement action.
• For private and voluntary sector employers, the snapshot date is 5 April each year. You must publish your gender pay gap information and written statement by 4 April of the following year. Find out more from Gender pay gap: our enforcement action.

By law, you must publish your gender pay gap data on or before the deadline each year.

We have the power to take enforcement action against any employer who does not comply with their reporting duties. Our enforcement policy sets out the approach we will take.

We will first carry out an investigation to confirm whether you are breaching the regulations. If you are, we will seek a court order requiring you to remedy the breach. Failing to comply with the court order is an offence, punishable with an unlimited fine if you are convicted.

Details of any employer that we investigate will be made publicly available on our website.

Reporting on pay gaps helps organisations understand the size and causes of their pay gaps and identify any issues that need to be addressed to reduce them.

Having a gender pay gap doesn’t necessarily mean that unlawful discrimination is happening. Publishing and monitoring pay gaps will help employers understand the reasons for any gap and consider whether they need to develop action plans to tackle the causes. For example, if women are mainly at lower-paid levels in the organisation, the employer might want to develop a positive action plan to encourage and support women to apply for more senior roles. 

Continuing to publish and monitor the gender pay gap, in line with the regulations, will help employers monitor how effective their actions are in reducing it.