“Companies that have met the deadline for reporting their gender pay gap have taken an important first step in acknowledging the scale of the issue. We now call on these thousands of employers to focus on the actions they need to take to close the gap.
“We know that gender-balanced companies outperform their peers, and McKinsey research shows that equal gender representation would generate £150bn a year for the UK economy by 2025. So it’s disappointing to see that only 8% of companies have reported equal gender pay and 78% of companies pay their men more than they pay their women.
“Employers need to ensure that tackling gender inequality is a long-term business priority – not something that can be swept under the rug. This is a wake-up call that far more needs to be done to rid business of longstanding discriminatory cultures holding back the recruitment, promotion and retention of talented women.”