Table 5.1 Range of opportunities for closing the pay gaps Opportunity Equality strand Area responsibility Interventions Sources of evidence if available Equality reporting All equality strands Government Government Employers - Mandatory reporting, with reporting requirements relating to gender, disability and ethnicity - in the Section 78 requirement on gender pay gap reporting to organisations with fewer than 250 employees - Educate employers to overcome wrongful assumption that equal pay issues are not relevant where there is job evaluation and other formalised human resources processes in place - Place stronger emphasis on action points following equal pay reviews and inclusion of metrics or evaluation methods to determine effectiveness of actions - Gow and Middlemiss (2011) - Dewson et al. (2011) - IFF Research (2015) - Workshops Shared Parental Leave Gender Government/ Employer - Raise level of Shared Parental Pay (consider statutory and employer top-ups) - Attempt to mitigate the perceived negative career impact for a father of taking an extended period of time off work - Plantenga and Remery (2005), cited in BIS (2013) - Moss, (2012, cited in BIS (2013) National Minimum Wage All equality strands Government - Raise level of NMW appropriately and progressively - Manning and Petrongolo (2008) Flexible working Gender/ Disability Employers Employers/EHRC - Re-organise work to provide opportunities for flexible working at all grades, particularly at senior levels and in high-paying functions - Educate all employees on their right to request flexible working arrangements at all grades - Workshops Performance management and All equality strands Employers - Pool and moderate evaluation of employees against the same criteria - Menino (2013) - Olsen et al. (2010)
- Focus on building the skills and confidence of line managers in managing employees with disabilities and in ensuring consistency in the application of related policies Early years education intervention All equality strands Government, EHRC - Pay attention to educational inequalities/stereotypes - Focus on careers services in schools, further education and universities, as well as relevant charities and employer bodies involved - Workshops - London Economics (2015) - Heath and Cheung (2006) Active labour market policies Ethnicity Government - Sustained active labour market policies in deprived areas - Heath and Cheung (2006) - Wood et al. (National Centre for Social Research, 2009) - NAO (2008) Childcare provision Gender Government Employers Remedy high costs, availability and flexibility of provision Offer free back-up childcare provision - GEO (2015)
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