Pay gap reporting | How can employers overcome the barrier of ethnicity and disability disclosure?

In July’s King’s Speech, the new Labour government promised to extend pay gap reporting requirements for ‘big’ employers beyond gender to include other protected characteristics, including disability and ethnicity.

Under the likely expansion, companies employing 250 or more staff members would be required to collect and disclose percentage differences between disabled and non-disabled employees, as well as between different ethnicities.

This brings significant challenges to businesses, including HR and compensation teams, who will be mandated to collect consistent and accurate data. Beyond the usual complexities of data collection – quantity, quality, and security – lie specific difficulties including employee disclosure.

Given the nature of the data employers must collect, accurately recording ethnicity and disability pay gap data requires them to overcome concerns over disclosure such as fear of discrimination and privacy concerns.