Equal pay reviews survey 2008 

Summary

This report presents the findings of the 2008 equal pay reviews (EPRs) survey conducted by IFF Research on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). It follows a series of similar surveys conducted on behalf of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), which looked at the use of equal pay reviews to assess the pay gap between men and women. The study involved 866 interviews with businesses across the private and public sectors conducted by telephone in February/March 2008.

Compared with 2005, participation in all types of EPR activity was higher in 2008. The proportion of organisations with completed EPRs had risen 5 percentage points to 17%; those with EPRs in progress had risen by 2 percentage points to 5%; and those with plans to conduct an EPR had risen by 8 percentage points.

Moreover, of those carrying out EPRs, only 16% were checking for both equal pay and equal value, which means that there will have been an under-reporting of the extent of pay discrimination.
The overall increase in EPR participation suggests that plans to conduct EPRs are being realised and that with a number of first EPRs planned, this trend should continue.

The public sector (where establishments tend to have a workforce with a substantial female majority) has the highest levels of EPR activity, with 43% having either completed an EPR, having one in progress or planning to conduct one compared with 23% in the private sector (where women tend to be in the minority).

Manufacturing is the only sector where EPR activity has decreased since 2005. In part, this may be a result of a more developed understanding of what constitutes an EPR (meaning that reviews previously considered to be EPRs are no longer classified as such).

The 2008 survey shows, in similar vein to previous surveys, that incidence of EPR activity increases as the size of organisations increases...

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