New regulations requiring large private sector UK companies to publish yearly gender-based pay statistics come into force on 30 April 2017.

The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 start a 12-month countdown for employers to publish their pay information on their company’s website from April 2018, and every year thereafter.

The regulations apply to employers with 250 or more employees in England, Scotland and Wales. According to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) figures, this amounts to around 7,000 companies and just over 10 million employees.

The regulations require employers to publish comparative hourly pay and bonus averages for their male and female employees. Employers must also provide data on the proportion of male to female bonus payments and comparative pay ratios.

There will be no sanctions if companies fail to comply with the reporting requirements, and there is no obligation to improve figures or propose improvements. BEIS, however, hopes the negative publicity generated through non-compliance will act as a spur to observe the requirements.

Shah Qureshi, head of employment law at Bindmans LLP, says: “Not only should employers be consulting payroll to ensure they have mechanisms in place to calculate the figures, but also marketing, to assist with presenting the figures, and management, to devise a plan for improvement.”