Statutory guidance

Who needs to report

Updated 9 January 2024

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Any employer with 250 or more employees on a specific date each year (the ‘snapshot date’) must report their gender pay gap data.

If you have to report, you must report and publish your gender pay gap information within a year of your snapshot date. The snapshot date is 31 March for most public authority employers, and 5 April for everybody else.

You must do this for:

• each year that you have 250 or more employees on your snapshot date
• each separate ‘legal entity’, if you are part of an organisation or group with more than one legal entity

If you have fewer than 250 employees on your snapshot date, you can still report if you would like to.

This guidance does not apply to Scottish or Welsh public public authorities – there are different regulations for Scotland and Wales.

How to work out if you have 250 or more employees

Your ‘headcount’ is of the number of individual employees you have, not full-time equivalents.

You must include these types of employees when calculating your headcount:

• people with a contract of employment with you, including if they work part-time, job-share or are on leave

• some self-employed people, if they must perform the work themselves – that is, they are not permitted to subcontract any part of the work or employ their own staff to do it

• partners on a salary, or limited liability partnership (LLP) members who you treat as employees for payroll purposes

Part-time workers and job sharing

Include part-time workers and people job-sharing in your headcount and your gender pay gap calculations.

Each part-time worker counts as one employee when working out your headcount.

Every employee within a job-share counts as one employee. For example, if 2 people job-share, they count as 2 employees in your headcount.

If an employee has more than one job with you, you can count them either as one employee or according to how many employment contracts they have.

Choose the best approach for your organisation, but your data will be more accurate if you are consistent.

Agency workers

Do not include agency workers, because they are part of the headcount of the agency that provides them.

People employed by a service company, and who contracts to provide a service to an employer, are part of the headcount of the service company.

Self-employed people

Include self-employed people in your headcount and gender pay gap calculations if they have a contract to do work for you themselves – that is, they are not permitted to subcontract any part of the work or employ their own staff to do it.

Include other self-employed people in your calculations if you have the data you need. For example, if there is a project initiation document or a schedule of fees.

If you don’t have the data, consider whether you can get it, for example by asking the person employed.

Apprentices, seasonal, temporary or casual employees, zero-hours workers

The type of contract will determine if you should include these workers in your headcount and gender pay gap calculations.

Include any workers who are employees on your snapshot date.

The length of their employment is not relevant. You must include them even if they have only worked for you for one day before your snapshot date.

Partners

Do not include partners in traditional partnerships and limited liability partnerships.

This is because they take a share of your organisation’s profits, and this is not comparable with employees’ pay.

When you are working out how many employees you have, include partners on a salary or LLP members who you treat as employees for payroll purposes. Do not include them in your gender pay gap calculations.

Employees on leave

You must include employees on leave, such as sick leave or maternity leave, while they are on full pay.

If any employees are reduced pay because of leave:

• only include them in your headcount and bonus pay gap calculations
• do not include them in other gender pay gap calculations

Overseas workers and international jobs

You may have to include employees in your headcount and gender pay gap calculations if your organisation is:

• based in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and you have employees working outside Great Britain
• based outside of Great Britain and you have employees working wholly or partly in Great Britain

This includes employers based in Northern Ireland with 250 or more employees working in Great Britain.

Rules around international employment and jurisdiction are complex. As a general rule, you should include any employee who can bring a claim to an employment tribunal under the Equality Act 2010.

This will depend on whether their employment relationship has a stronger connection to British employment law, than to the law of another country.

You should usually treat someone as an employee when working out your headcount if they:

• have a contract that is subject to British employment law
• continue to have their home in Great Britain
• have UK tax legislation apply to their employment

You will need to consider whether to include employees who are both:

• employed by an overseas entity

• seconded to work  in Great Britain

Consider each case on its own facts.

If you need to convert any currency to make your calculations, use the exchange rate that applied at the date of payment.

If your organisation is part of a group

If your headcount means you have to report, you must calculate, report and publish gender pay gap information for each separate legal entity.

A group which has reported separate data for more than one legal entity can also report and publish:

• combined figures for the entire group
• more information in a supporting narrative alongside your published report

If you are a larger employer, you may find it useful to break your calculations down further. You might do this, for example:

• if you operate in different employment sectors
• if the jobs and levels of pay and bonuses are not comparable

If your headcount has fallen below 250

Let us know if:

• you have reported your gender pay gap information before
• your headcount has since gone below 250 on your snapshot date

To do this:

• sign in to the gender pay gap service

• select your organisation on the page ‘Add or select an employer you’re reporting for’

• select ‘change’ under ‘reporting requirement’ and letting us know you are now out of scope

This will ensure your organisation does not receive a ‘late badge’ on the gender pay gap service.

If you have more than one payroll

If your headcount means you have to report, and you have more than one payroll, you must:

• merge the required data from all your payrolls
• report one set of figures