Northern Ireland is poised to join fellow European nations in implementing a gender pay gap reporting requirement. The Department of Communities (DOC) moved forward with a consultation for its proposed regulations in November.
The law would require organizations with 250 employees or more to report annually on their gender pay gaps. A race/ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting requirement is also anticipated.
Subject to Assembly approval, it is anticipated that regulations will come into force in early 2027. However, employers would not be required to publish pay gap reports immediately. Instead the first reports will likely be due in 2028, reflecting a 2027 snapshot date, and then annually thereafter.
Northern Ireland Pay Gap Reporting Law Details
The original gender pay gap reporting law was introduced in the Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. The DOC’s plan is to modernize the original legislation, as outlined in its consultation.
The DOC proposes adopting the methodology used by the Office of National Statistics for their Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and mirroring the existing reporting requirements in the United Kingdom to ensure comparability of gender pay data with England, Scotland and Wales. It will involve:
- Annual reporting of mean and median pay and bonus gaps.
- Carrying out calculations based on a specific pay period (known as the snapshot date).
- Preparing calculations based on hourly rate of pay for each relevant employee, which will include basic pay, allowances, pay for piecework, pay for leave and shift premium.
- Reporting on the proportion of male and female employees that receive a bonus.
- Publishing pay and bonus gap information in quartiles, by dividing the workforce into four equal groups.
And, as is expected in the UK, the law is expected to require reporting on race/ethnicity and disability pay gaps. The consultation draft lacks specific details but employers will be required to publish information including statistics on workers within each pay band in relation to ethnicity and disability.
The consultation recognizes the current absence of a legal requirement to record an employee’s ethnic origin, but states that where the information is known, it should be recorded.
Conduct An Intersectional Pay Equity Analysis of Your Workforce
Organizations will be required to produce action plans that address gender pay differences only, and not any ethnicity or disability pay gaps. However, in practice the publication of ethnicity and disability pay gaps will put pressure on employers to cover these as well.
Leverage Workplace Equity Software to Comply
Employers with operations in Northern Ireland should utilize workplace equity software to simplify reporting requirements.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive, which will be enacted in some member states as soon as 2025 and will be in effect for all member states by June 2026, is the tipping point.
For large, multinational employers, this means a centralized global pay equity strategy is vital. Trusaic’s workplace equity software product suite and expert support enables you to develop a cohesive global pay equity strategy that will ensure compliance and integrate into your total rewards and talent management strategy seamlessly.
Our three-pronged approach is a cut above other solutions:
- Leverage PayParity® and OpportunityParity™ to understand, explain, and resolve pay and opportunity disparities. And now, with R.O.S.A., you can optimize the spend of your remediation budget to ensure you are maximizing the ROI of each dollar spent.
- Leverage the Regulatory Pay Transparency Reporting™ solution and easily complete required reporting by compliance deadlines.
- Leverage the Workplace Equity product suite to communicate narratives and share salary ranges with confidence. Communicate the sources of your pay gaps, progress objectives, and corrective measures to employees and internal stakeholders. Show data-backed progress in your pay gaps over time.
Our comprehensive workplace equity software solutions and on-demand expert support is with you every step of the way. With Trusaic, you can proceed with confidence knowing you are working toward achieving pay equity with the backing of a robust methodology that is accurate, explainable, and complies with fast-changing regulations.
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