Mixed Methods Research on Employers' Understanding of the Gender Pay Gap

The Government has committed to closing the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) within a generation. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) in the Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for policy to reduce the GPG.

Much of GPG policy activity focuses on employers, and in particular, on the GPG transparency regulations. These regulations require all employers with over 250 employees to annually publish GPG statistics.

The aim of these regulations is to encourage employers to take informed action to close their GPG where there is one. To support implementation of these regulations, the GEO have commissioned research with large employers in the private, voluntary and public sectors in Great Britain to provide representative evidence on employers' response to the transparency regulations, their understanding of the transparency regulations and GPG, and the types of actions they are taking to close it.

This research will comprise: • A nationally representative telephone survey to understand the extent to which employers affected by the regulations are aware of the regulations and what the GPG is, the support they need to comply with the GPG regulations, and the extent to which employers are planning to or are already tacking action to close the GPG in their organisation. • Qualitative interviews with employers identified by the survey as having varying levels of engagement on GPG, from not taking any action to tackle their GPG, to planning to take action and already taking action. This will help us understand in more depth how employers interpret the GPG and the drivers of it, barriers to taking action, and the types of actions they are taking/intending to take to address their GPG.

The initial commission for this project included an option for a second wave of both the quantitative and qualitative elements. However, this is subject to approval by senior officials, and is not covered by this contract.