Something to hide? Only 5 out of 9,000 firms release gender pay gap details

Only five UK employers have published the details of their gender pay gap on a Government website under new legislation requiring employers to be transparent about wage disparities.

The policy, created by the Conservative party, came into action on 6 April and applies to around 9,000 employers - but only five have released data so far.

Those firms include a window-blind manufacturer, an umbrella company and a cleaning company.

The rule requires all firms with over 250 employees to publish annual figures for both their mean and median gender pay gaps for salaries and bonuses, and the number of men and women in each salary quartile. The data must be published by April 2018. 

According to The Financial Times, Lucy Smith, Managing Director of Contractor Umbrella, said that she was “absolutely gobsmacked” upon realising that she was one out of the handful of employers to comply so far.