RSS fellow and CStat, Nigel Marriott, gave evidence to the House of Commons' Treasury Select Committee on June 5 2019, regarding an inquiry on ‘The Effectiveness of Gender Pay Gap Reporting’. He appeared alongside Sarah Gordon, ex-Business Editor of the Financial Times.
Nigel, an independent statistical consultant, supplied the underlying research for a report published in April by the Royal Statistical Society, 'Better data for fairer employment: Statistics' role in tackling the gender pay gap' (PDF), which lists ten recommendations for better gender pay gap reporting.
In response to questions by the Select Committee, which is headed up by Nicky Morgan MP, Nigel said that each employer should be required to report on its overall performance, as well as the performance of each of its divisions. He also talked about the benefits of reporting by quartile, as outlined in the RSS's 10 recommendations (pointing out that, statistically speaking, they’re ‘quarters’ rather than ‘quartiles’).
Nigel estimates that around 2% of employers in the financial sector have made 'obvious mistakes' in their gender pay gap entries, but that about 40% of the sector’s employers have gone beyond the official requirements re: their gender pay gap reporting - which he welcomed.
The committee discussed the RSS report's tenth recommendation at length, which focuses on improving the statistical skills of HR professionals who are often required by employers to do gender pay gap reporting.
Watch the session in full on Parliament TV.