The gender pay gap is the average difference between men and women's aggregate hourly pay. This gap is due to a number of reasons, such as differences in job and industry, differences in the types of jobs carried out by men and women and differences in the length of the working week.
Subject to the approval of Parliament, the regulations are likely to come into force in December 2016. The regulations will require employers to calculate gender pay gaps using data from the specific pay period of 30 April, commencing from 2017. Employers will have up to 12 months to choose when they publish this information.