More public bodies to be required to publish equal pay information

The Scottish Government is to extend the requirement on public bodies to publish information on their gender pay gap.

If enacted, the new regulations will require public sector agencies with more than 20 employees to provide gender pay gap information and statements on equal pay.

Currently, the Scottish Government only requires public bodies that have more than 150 employees to produce this information.

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Proposed UK wide regulations will only apply to public and private sector bodies with more than 250 employees.

Speaking at Unite Scotland’s first policy conference, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the regulations have been laid before Parliament, with the aim that they are approved before the end of session in March.

“In promoting good employment practices, I want the public sector to lead by example.

If you take gender equality as an example, we are currently leading a 5050 by 2020 campaign to encourage the public, third and private sector companies to commit to gender equality in the boardroom.

“That’s part of a much broader commitment to boosting female employment and tackling gender segregation in careers and modern apprenticeships.

“At the moment, over 90 per cent of public sector boards have now made a commitment to work towards gender balance on their boards by 2020.

“The gender pay gap has reduced in Scotland in recent years, but we know it remains a persistent problem.”

In the 2015 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to amend the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 to lower the threshold for listed public authorities to publish their gender pay gap and an equal pay statement from those with more than 150 employees to those with more than 20 employees.

This is in addition to an earlier Programme for Government 2014 commitment to require public bodies to publish the composition of their boards.

Last year Holyrood reported that Fife Council was facing a multi-million pound payout over historic equal pay claims.