10 reasons to cut your gender pay gap
12th June 2025
Julia Hanna
Mandatory gender pay gap reporting has been in place in the UK since 2017 and in Ireland from 2021.
Now, in the UK, the Employment Rights Bill and the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill are looking to enhance the current reporting regime to:
- include outsourced workers.
- extend reporting to ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
- mandate equality action plans.
And in Ireland, the threshold for reporting has this year reduced to fifty employees, with a shorter publication timeframe and a new government portal allowing easier searching of pay gaps and raising public awareness.
So, apart from legislation, why should reducing your pay gap be an important area of focus? As part of our series of ‘Top 10’ blogs celebrating our tenth anniversary, we’ve taken a look at ten reasons why you should cut your gender, and other, pay gaps:
1. There are clear business benefits
Gender parity improves talent attraction, alignment with customers, employee engagement, and innovation. According to McKinsey & Company (2020), closing gender gaps in the labour market could contribute an additional $13 trillion to global GDP by 2030.
2. It affects your brand
Reputation and brand affect consumer choices, particularly in competitive markets. The Office for National Statistics publishes sector analysis on gender, you don’t want to be lagging behind.
3. It makes you attractive to talent
A workplace where everyone can flourish is part of your overall employee deal. Existing and potential employees can find and compare your pay gaps on the Government’s website.
How long before sites such as Glassdoor publish gender pay gaps to help those looking for the best companies to work for?
4. It makes your employees proud
A strong gender pay message is a great way to improve internal morale and pride. Voluntarily reporting ethnicity and disability pay gaps ahead of impending legislation demonstrates commitment to a fairer workplace for all.
5. It promotes a positive workplace culture
A focus on closing the gender pay gap fosters an inclusive and respectful workplace culture. This sets a tone of equality that can lead to more collaborative and positive working relationships
6. There’s an equal pay risk
Although employees cannot bring claims based on non-compliance of gender pay regulations, a pay gap could be used as supporting evidence of poor practice in an equal pay claim.
It is also a requirement of the EU Pay Transparency Directive that organisations with significant gender pay gaps will be required to undertake joint pay assessments in consultation with employees or their representatives.
7. It demonstrates good governance
The best Remuneration Committees will include gender pay in their remuneration reports. Some will task executives with improving the gap and link progress with their own pay.
8. It will help procurement
There’s no doubt gender pay gap figures will soon become a requirement for many tender processes.
9. It improves men’s health
A positive knock-on effect of closing the gender pay gap and championing female leaders is less pressure and reduced stress levels for men, contributing to better mental health.
10. It’s simply the right thing to do
Reducing the gender pay gap contributes to broader economic growth. When women earn fair wages, they have greater spending power, which can stimulate local economies and boost overall GDP.
How we can help
At Verditer, we are specialists in creating a transparent approach to pay and reward. Do get in touch if you’d like our help with pay equity including creating a transparent and equitable reward strategy, developing pay foundations, or with pay gap reporting.
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