For a pay gap reporting system to work, employers must clearly understand the information they need to report. While some countries offer very little guidance about what statistical analysis to perform and how to share the results, an increasing number of governments in the OECD provide employers with digital tools such as gender pay gap calculators and online reporting portals. The use of pre‑existing data, too, has appeared as a new frontier in pay transparency – this can allow governments to calculate companies’ gender pay gaps with little or no additional administrative burden on employers.
Reporting Gender Pay Gaps in OECD Countries
7. Practical tools to facilitate gender pay gap reporting
Abstract
Key findings
Pay gap reporting systems are most effective when their requirements are clearly understood by employers. To support employers in analysing and sharing the correct information, many governments have introduced new tools to simplify reporting.
Governments offer pay reporting support to employers in at least 18 out of the 21 OECD countries with pay reporting requirements in the private sector. In most cases reporting is facilitated by providing detailed guidance like step-by-step guides, checklists, as well as video recordings. Many countries have also designated a contact point in government to answer specific questions.
At least seven OECD countries provide employers with an online reporting portal, where employers can register and report their pay data. Several countries also provide employers with gender pay gap calculators.
A few countries use pre‑existing data to calculate pay gaps. At least two OECD countries – Lithuania and Portugal – are now using administrative data to carry out pay gap analyses for individual employers across an entire country, eliminating the need for companies to calculate the gender wage gap themselves. Australia has established a task force to explore implementing this approach. And the national statistical office in Denmark uses its Structure of Earnings Survey – with linked employer-employee survey data covering nearly all workers – to estimate within-company wage gaps for affected firms.
Governments without private sector pay reporting requirements are increasingly offering tools to support voluntary gender pay gap analysis, including wage gap calculators and public pay gap registries. These tools can empower employers who are not legally obligated to report and encourage greater transparency.
Policy takeaway: Governments should continue investing in digital tools. These can streamline and simplify pay gap reporting and monitoring processes, ultimately contributing to more accurate and comprehensive gender pay gap analyses. Such tools can include the provision of free wage gap calculators for firms, the use of online portals to submit employee wage data, and taking advantage of gender-disaggregated, linked employer-employee data already held by the government to calculate wage gaps for employers.
7.1. How can governments facilitate employers’ reporting process?
In most countries with pay gap reporting regimes, governments provide support to firms fulfilling pay reporting requirements (see Table 7.1). This support aims to clarify and enhance firms’ understanding of the reporting process. Typically, governments offer written overviews on pay reporting requirements and additional information on compliance. These resources are easily accessible online on government websites.
A recent trend observed in several countries, including Australia, Canada under the Employment Equity Act,1 France, Iceland, Italy, Korea, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, is the adoption of online digital technologies to facilitate the reporting process (see Section 7.1.2). These technological tools, ranging from online reporting portals, gender pay gap calculators or other software, are designed to streamline and simplify the reporting experience for employers.
Table 7.1. Practical tools provided by governments to facilitate reporting
Tools, including software and calculators, provided by the government to facilitate reporting in countries with private sector gender pay gap reporting requirements.
Country |
Tool(s) |
---|---|
Austria |
Online‑Toolbox at www.einkommensbericht.gv.at offers guidance for each step of the pay gap report. |
Australia |
Online portal to facilitate reporting at https://client-portal.wgea.gov.au/s/ as well as a Knowledge Hub at https://client-portal.wgea.gov.au/s/topiccatalog designed to help employers navigate the reporting process. Website of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency for pay reporting at https://www.wgea.gov.au/reporting-guide offers tools, and resources, including videos and step-by-step guides, and provides a comprehensive overview of reporting requirements. The Agency’s staff are also available for individual employer queries that are lodged by phone, e-mail and live chat. For organisations that want to conduct their own gender pay gap analysis, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency provides a Gender Pay Gap calculator for free download at https://www.wgea.gov.au/tools/the-gender-pay-gap-calculator. |
Belgium |
Website of the Federal Public Service Employment explains the obligations of pay reporting relevant for employers at https://emploi.belgique.be/fr/themes/egalite-et-non-discrimination/egalite-femmes-hommes-lecart-salarial#toc_heading_4. On this website employers can find downloadable forms provided for in the Ministerial Order of 25 April 2014 establishing the model to be used as the basis for the analysis report (one for those with 50‑100 employees and one for those with 100 or more employees). Employee representatives who sit on the participation bodies are trained on the competences of the body and the obligations of the employer, e.g. in the context of the wage gap. They can remind the employer to do the necessary. |
Canada |
EEA: Online portal to facilitate reporting, the Workplace Equity Information Management System (WEIMS), at https://equity.esdc.gc.ca/sgiemt-weims/emp/WeimsMaintLogin.jsp, it generates employers’ annual employment equity report, using their individual employee‑level data. WEIMS was developed in 2009 and updated in 2021 to automatically calculate mean and median pay gaps for employers. PEA: Resources, such as videos, to support the implementation of the Act at www.payequitychrc.ca. The Pay Equity Commissioner is also responsible for providing assistance and guidance to workplace parties to help them meet their obligations. |
Chile |
No digital tools are provided by the government to facilitate reporting. |
Denmark |
Statistics Denmark provide gender-segregated pay statistics automatically and free of charge. If a company chooses not to use these statistics they must make their own. More information is available on the government website: https://bm.dk/arbejdsomraader/arbejdsvilkaar/ligestilling/lovgivning-om-ligestilling/ligeloensloven/#:~:text=Ligel%C3%B8nsloven%20forbyder%20l%C3%B8nm%C3%A6ssig%20forskelsbehandling%20p%C3%A5,Ligel%C3%B8nsloven%20er%20fra%201976 |
Finland |
No tools provided by the government. Employers may make use of their own tools or commercial tools. |
France |
Several tools have been deployed from 2019 by the Ministry of Labour to support companies in implementing the Professional Equality Index, such as: - Calculation simulator1 and a declaration tool are available online at https://index-egapro.travail.gouv.fr, along with frequently asked questions at https://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/droit-du-travail/egalite-professionnelle-discrimination-et-harcelement/indexegapro. - Provision of an online self-training course (MOOC) for companies as well as in person training sessions to help calculate the Index and design corrective measures if necessary. - A telephone assistance platform. - Designation of “professional equality” referents within the ministry’s decentralised departments. - A network of professional equality ambassadors, made up of company directors and HR managers throughout France. In addition, communication actions and mailing campaigns have been organised to encourage employers to comply with these obligations (before each annual publication of the Index, as well as at the time of the implementation of the various support measures mentioned above). For example: information campaign on social networks, press releases, publication of various web contents, sending of information and reminder emails to all the companies concerned, dissemination of information in the Bercy entreprises newsletter, or specific mailing addressed to companies having declared an insufficient Index To help employers in the public sector to build their action plan on professional equality between women and men as provided for by the provisions of the law on the transformation of the civil service, a methodological guide has been developed by the DGAFP. It allows the construction of relevant indicators on gender gaps in pay and promotion, as well as the impact on careers. In addition, there is the DGAFP tool for calculating pay gaps, its instructions for use, as well as a reading grid to better understand the results of the tool. A file is also available to simulate the effect of staff movements, as well as to break down the segregation effect by corps. https://www.fonction-publique.gouv.fr/files/files/carrieres_et_parcours_professionnel/egalite-pro/DESSI-guide-indicateurs-egalite-pro.pdf |
Iceland |
The government provides a job classifications and pay analysing software open for all. |
Italy |
Digital platform, set up and managed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies at https://servizi.lavoro.gov.it/Public/login?retUrl=https://servizi.lavoro.gov.it/&App=ServiziHome |
Israel |
The EEOC issued guidelines to employers about the reporting obligation that include explanations and sample reports. |
Ireland |
No response. |
Japan |
Website run by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare with a database on firms that promote women’s participation and advancement available at https://positive-ryouritsu.mhlw.go.jp/positivedb/en_about.html |
Korea |
Companies submit wage data through the government website (https://aa-net.or.kr/) and the government can monitor the submission through the aforementioned website. (1) direct contact number of person in charge in public corporation (2) chatbot-enabled platform to respond employers’ needs in real time (3) booklets on how to report (4) video on the website(aa-net) that details how to report |
Lithuania |
No digital tools are provided, but the government gives recommendations for pay reporting. Government additionally calculates firm-level gender wage gap for firms using pre‑existing administrative data. |
New Zealand* |
Guidelines for the measurement and analysis of organisational gender pay gaps for all employers, available at https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/system/public-service-people/pay-gaps-and-pay-equity/kia-toipoto/ and at https://stats.govt.nz/methods/organisational-gender-pay-gaps-measurement-and-analysis-guidelines. The Equal Pay Taskforce, based at Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission, helps agencies implement Kia Toipoto, supports implementation of pay equity in accordance with the Equal Pay Act, and provides guidance, resources, workshops and advice. The Ministry for Women has a “What’s my gender pay gap?” tool available at https://women.govt.nz/gpg, which provides information on pay gaps by sector and by some occupations, as well as for other indicators such as pay gaps by region, ethnicity, field of study and age. The tool does not allow for the calculation of pay gaps but provides information from the 2019 Household Labour Force Survey. |
Norway |
Information and support available for the private sector at www.bufdir.no/arp. Available tools include mapping tools available free for everyone in Excel – with calculators and help to define work of equal value, templates for the equality statement and action plans. |
Portugal |
Each firm that submits the Single Report2 and has access to comparative information (Barometer of Pay Differences between Women and Men3) allowing them to position themselves in relation to their sector from a gender pay gap perspective. The Barometer also constitutes a digital tool that facilitates reporting. Guidance is provided on how to interpret information in the Barometer (http://www.gep.mtsss.gov.pt/documents/10182/45673/Como_Interpretar_BdD.pdf/20254ba8-7cfa-4469-ad05-2fa2b23c03ae) and on how to calculate the unadjusted and adjusted gender pay gaps (http://www.gep.mtsss.gov.pt/documents/10182/45673/Como_calcular_GPG_GPG+ajustado.pdf/a3913a9e-624f-44b8-a739-d3a81e73aa5c). Employers also have access to a guide for objective job evaluation, based on common criteria for men and women (https://cite.gov.pt/documents/14333/297943/CITE+-+Guia+de+avalia%C3%A7%C3%A3o+de+diferen%C3%A7as+remunerat%C3%B3rias.pdf/2a55800d-328a-465f-ad63-12853d3da9d6). The Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 13/2013 announced that an electronic tool would be made available to companies, by the Commission for Equality in Work and Employment. This gave rise, in 2015, to the Gender Pay Gap Calculator (Calculator DSG), which has been upgraded in recent years. The Calculator DSG was accompanied by a second web tool, the Self-Assessment Survey on Equal Pay between Men and Women in Companies. |
Spain |
Tool for pay registries available at https://www.mites.gob.es/es/portada/herramienta_registro_retributivo/index.htm. Technical Guide on pay audits with gender perspective for enterprises, which is available at https://www.igualdadenlaempresa.es/asesoramiento/herramientas-igualdad/home.htm Tool that aims to facilitate the practical job-evaluation and, in this light, helps to close the pay gap, available at https://www.mites.gob.es/es/portada/herramienta_valoracion_puesto/index.htm |
Sweden |
The Equality Ombudsman has guidance on their website at http://e-utbildning.do.se/lonekartlaggning/, which includes a video and an online training. |
Switzerland |
The law requires the federal government to provide a free standard analysis tool for all employers, i.e. the online tool Logib available at https://www.ebg.admin.ch/ebg/en/home/services/logib-triage.html. This offers a very large range of pay (gap) information including the metrics mentioned above. The federal government has made the Logib standard analysis tool available to all employers. The webtool is free, anonymous, secure and easy to use. Logib consists of two modules. Module 1 is based on a statistical method and is therefore particularly well-suited to larger companies with many employees. Smaller enterprises can use the new Module 2. |
United Kingdom |
Employers are provided with a digital service for reporting data at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-your-gender-pay-gap-data and a website with guidance at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gender-pay-gap-reporting. |
Notes: Table summarises pay reporting tools provided by the government in countries with such requirements in the public and/or private sectors.
*New Zealand’s regulations and tools apply only to the public sector.
1. More specifically, the online tool is a tool for entering the statistics needed to calculate the Index (number of employees, average amounts, etc.), however, these statistics are calculated by the company, which must determine which employees fall within the scope of the calculation (according to their type of contract, the length of time they have been with the company, etc.), what their remuneration is, whether they have benefited from increases, promotions, etc.
2. In Portugal, all employers with at least one employee must submit the Single Report (Relatório Único) to the Ministry of Labour. This report contains information on the social activity of the company, information on the firm (location, industry, employment, sales, ownership, and legal setting, among other features), and on each of its workers (gender, age, education, skill, occupational category, tenure, wages, hours worked, and more), with the content and deadline for submission regulated by Ministerial Order no. 55/2010, of 21 January. The information contained in the report is included in the Quadros de Pessoal, where information about each individual company is available for consultation only by the respective company itself and the labour inspectorate (Autoridade para as Condicoes do Trabalho (ACT)), for inspection purposes and preventive activities.
3. For more information on the Portuguese Barometer refer to http://www.gep.mtsss.gov.pt/relatorio-unico#balan%c3%a7o+das+diferen%c3%a7as+remunerat%c3%b3rias.
Source: OECD Gender Pay Transparency Follow-Up Questionnaire (OECD GPTQ 2022, see Annex A).
7.1.1. Various ways of providing guidance
Providing guidance on reporting requirements is crucial to ensure that employers understand how to carry out gender pay gap calculations, define equal pay for work of equal value, and design actions to address gender pay gaps and unequal pay (Cowper-Coles et al., 2021[1]). Most countries offer information online (sometimes in downloadable form) on conducting pay analyses and gender pay gap calculations, and some countries provide information on concrete actions that employers can take. This information is available in countries such as Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada under the Pay Equity Act, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.2
Guidance is often provided in the form of a step-by-step plan or checklist. For example, the Austrian Income Report Toolbox,3 accessible online, offers employers detailed instructions on creating, analysing, and communicating pay reports, as well as taking concrete action (Figure 7.1). Norway follows a similar pattern with additional steps for assessing the results of the pay gap analysis.4 Belgium provides tools like a checklist for ensuring “gender neutrality” in the evaluation and classification of functions for employers.5
In many countries, designated contact points are available for employer inquiries. For instance, in Australia, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency staff can be contacted by phone, email and live chat. In Canada, the Pay Equity Commissioner provides assistance and guidance to workplace parties. France has “professional equality” referents within the Labour Ministry’s decentralised departments. Korea offers a direct contact number of a person in charge in public corporations and a chatbot-enabled platform on the government website to respond to employers’ needs in real time. New Zealand has the Equal Pay Taskforce, based in the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission, supporting pay gap reporting in the public sector and providing guidance, resources, workshops on implementing pay equity in accordance with the Equal Pay Act.
Some countries including Australia (Figure 7.2), New Zealand, and the United Kingdom (Figure 7.3), offer comprehensive and detailed guidance across multiple cross-referenced websites. This approach helps direct employers to the specific information they need. However, for individuals unfamiliar with reporting requirements, these websites may also prove complex and overwhelming due to the vast amount of information available.
Videos are effective tools to communicate information, as they are more engaging than long imageless text and may improve knowledge retention. As such, videos have the potential to make complex information easier to interpret. Several pay transparency websites, such as the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency,6 the French Ministry of Labour,7 the Icelandic Office of Equality,8 and the Swedish Equality Ombudsman,9 offer videos. Norway10 also provides instructional videos covering a wide range of topics, including reporting obligations, equality, and discrimination.
7.1.2. Digital tools can streamline and simplify companies’ reporting and monitoring processes
Governments are going beyond written and video guidance to support firms in calculating their own pay gaps by increasingly offering digital tools to facilitate reporting. By removing some of the administrative and logistical pressure and resolving some of the “know how” challenges, governments make it easier for employers to comply with reporting requirements. This is particularly advantageous for small businesses with limited resources. This use of digital tools may therefore help extend pay transparency to more workers without burdening employers excessively.
Digital tools can also establish a standardised framework for data collection standards within and across firms. This promotes effective monitoring of reporting requirements, facilitates national-level data comparisons, and supports the straightforward dissemination of results.
Several countries, including Australia, Canada (under the Employment Equity Act), France (Figure 7.4), Italy, Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, provide employers with online reporting portals. These portals allow employers can register, calculate and/or report their pay data.
In countries like Australia, Canada, and Switzerland, the online portal utilises individual employee‑level data to automatically calculate organisation-wide gender pay gap information and to generate employers’ gender pay gap report. Some countries, such as Belgium and Spain, rely on downloadable reporting forms available on government websites. Most countries that require reporting to government, including Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, also mandate the use of an online portal for submitting and/or calculating pay gap statistics.
A handful of countries also provide employers with gender pay gap calculator software. For example, Australia11 and Norway12 offer downloadable gender pay gap calculators for employers interested in conducting their own gender pay gap analysis. In France both an anonymous calculation simulator as well as a declaration tool are available online.13 Portugal’s Gender Pay Gap Calculator (DSG)14 has undergone upgrades in recent years and is accompanied by a second web tool, the Self-Assessment Survey on Equal Pay between Men and Women in Companies.
Less common online tools for employers include France and Sweden’s e‑trainings available to relevant employers. The French training15 aims to educate employers on how the Professional Equality Index works; to calculate the overall score and indicators of the Index; establish connections with other obligations related to professional equality; and provide access to useful resources for further understanding and improving gender equality. The course is designed to be followed over the course of two weeks with a workload of 1.5 hours per week. In Sweden,16 the training includes three modules collaboration and co‑operation, data collection and analysis, as well as documentation. The training tool also includes a self-assessment to evaluate understanding of the main concepts and tasks.
Iceland’s job classification and pay analysing software, Embla,17 is unique. It is based on the methodology job classification outlined in Annex B of the Equal Pay Standard ÍST85:2012, which sets out two methods of classifying jobs one “paired comparison” and “scoring for each criterion”. Embla is based on the second method, allocating 1 000 points (100%) for job classification. It is important to note that companies define the criteria and their weights according to their specific roles and policies.
The United States provides instructions on-line and a portal for submission of information for federal agencies completing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) MD‑715 report. For these reports, which do not include pay data information, the EEOC provides a portal for electronic submission of information, which can be done manually or through up-loads. Even though this is not used for pay gap reporting it is a comparable tool/portal. Extensive instructions18 also are available to aid covered entities in reporting (GPTQ, 2022).
Box 7.1. The Logib gender pay gap reporting tool
Switzerland pioneered the Logib tool to calculate pay gaps
Although Switzerland’s pay transparency law does not provide explicit instructions on the format and content of the gender pay gap report (refer to Chapter 3), the law does mandate the federal government to offer a free standard analysis tool to all employers: the online tool Logib.1
The Logib webtool is accessible at no cost and provides anonymity, security, and user-friendly features. First introduced in 2006 and subsequently modified, Logib offers a comprehensive range of pay (gap) information. Two procedures are available: one tailored for small firms (Module 2) and one for larger ones (Module 1) (Figure 7.5). The process involves employers completing a data sheet template, which the tool then utilises to calculate gender pay gaps and generate a report.
Logib is now being applied elsewhere
Logib has been applied in other countries, for instance in the Czech Republic, where the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs runs a project focusing on the promotion of equal pay as part of the government’s Strategy for Equality Between Women and Men 2021 – 2030 (see Section 7.4).
Logib has also been labelled “EPIC Good Practice” by the Equal Pay International Coalition, which has shared this resource with members.
Note: For more information on how Logib works, see the dedicated Swiss Government website: https://www.logib.admin.ch/home.
1. The law requires the federal government to provide a free standard analysis tool for all employers, i.e. the online tool Logib available at https://www.ebg.admin.ch/ebg/en/home/services/logib-triage.html. This offers a very large range of pay (gap) information including the metrics mentioned above. The federal government has made the Logib standard analysis tool available to all employers. The webtool is free, anonymous, secure and easy to use. Logib consists of two modules. Module 1 is based on a statistical method and is therefore particularly well-suited to larger companies with many employees. Smaller enterprises can use the new Module 2.
Source: Government of Switzerland Logib website (https://www.logib.admin.ch/home); (EPIC, n.d.[2]).
7.2. A new frontier in pay reporting: Using pre‑existing survey and administrative data
Reporting portals and gender pay gap calculators have the potential to alleviate the administrative burden placed on employers. Nevertheless, in many cases, collected data already exist that can eliminate the need for companies to perform their own calculations entirely.
Government administrative and survey data – such as tax records, social security contribution records, and detailed employer-employee data – offer valuable opportunities for simplifying gender pay gap reporting. In short, governments can generate gender-disaggregated wage statistics for companies using the individual-level data they have already collected.
Administrative data can enable pay transparency when linking at least three pieces of information: an individual’s earnings, their employer,19 and their gender (information typically held by the employer). Ideally the dataset would also include job category (to enable comparisons) and hours worked by employee (to ensure the inclusion of part-time workers as required by reporting regulations).
This combination of information can allow a central agency – such as a tax authority – to conduct pay gap analyses for individual employers across an entire country, eliminating the need for companies to calculate the gender wage gap themselves.
This approach presents a promising avenue for implementing pay transparency measures while also addressing a major criticism of pay transparency regulations: the administrative burden imposed on employers. Typically, companies are required to calculate the gender wage gap within their organisation internally. In many countries, companies are also required to calculate disaggregated wage gaps, for example by comparing men and women across different job classes or levels of seniority. While claims of excessive burden from the industry are somewhat exaggerated, and the actual costs of conducting pay gap calculations are often low (Procedure 2021/0050(COD), n.d.[3]; Aumayr-Pintar, Christine, 2020[4]; OECD, 2021[5]), there are undoubtedly initial costs and ongoing human resource requirements associated with producing pay gap estimates within a given firm.
Although this strategy is rare, at least two OECD countries are currently using administrative data to calculate gender wage gaps: Lithuania and Portugal. Another OECD country, Australia, has established a task force to explore implementing this approach.
Existing survey data that can link individual workers’ wages to their employers can also be used to estimate within-company wage gaps. Denmark’s national statistical office, Statistics Denmark, employs this strategy through their national linked employer-employee Structure of Earnings Survey.
7.2.1. Lithuania uses data from the State Social Insurance System
Since 2021, Lithuania’s State Social Insurance System (SODRA)20 has been annually publishing company-level average wages by gender in an online public register of companies (https://rekvizitai.vz.lt/imone/). The website is available in seven languages. Average wages by gender are published for every company with a minimum eight employees, including at least four women and four men. Average wages are based on the income used to calculate social insurance contributions.
Determining workers’ gender is simple. All Lithuanian citizens have a personal identity code, and that of men starts with 3 or 5 and that of women with 4 or 6. When employers submit notifications regarding new hires, they also indicate the employee’s personal identity code.21
Lithuania’s approach represents a novel, simple and straightforward tool for presenting aggregate gender wage gaps within companies. The government effectively analyses existing data it already holds and publishes it on their public website. The visual presentation of the gap could be improved; currently, it only displays average wages for women and men without comparing them to, for example, the national averages. Nevertheless, this is an efficient use of data with low administrative costs.
In addition to this new data source for pay transparency, companies in Lithuania with a minimum of 20 employees are also required to calculate and report – to the employee works council or union – the average remuneration of employees by occupation group and gender, excluding managers. This aids individual workers and their representatives in identifying possible drivers of the gender wage gap, such as systematically underpaid occupation groups. Moreover, it increases accountability and understanding of gender inequalities within the organisation.
A common critique of pay transparency remains relevant in the Lithuanian context: the responsibility for addressing and seeking redress for revealed pay inequities still largely falls on individual employees and her representatives. Similar to other OECD countries without an equal pay auditing system (discussed in Chapter 4), there is no formal response or action plan required of employers when a gender wage gap is identified.
7.2.2. Denmark’s national statistical office calculates wage gaps for firms
Companies in Denmark with a minimum of 35 employees have an annual requirement to report the gender wage gap in their organisation. However, many companies take advantage of a significant time‑saving resource for calculating their wage gap: the technical expertise of the Danish National Statistical Office, Statistics Denmark.
Statistics Denmark is commissioned by the Ministry of Employment to carry out gender wage gap calculations for all eligible firms based on availability of adequate data, including minimum number of male and female workers overall and by job classification. This is an optional service, as employers can choose to perform the analysis themselves, although most opt not to do so.
To estimate the gender wage gap, Statistics Denmark utilises an existing national survey which covers almost all workers in Denmark: the Structure of Earnings Survey.22 This survey provides linked employer-employee data, primarily derived from payroll systems, ensuring a highly automated data collection. The calculations themselves are also automated, meaning that production is programmed and seldom requires adjustments beyond data quality assurance. Statistics Denmark then shares the calculated gender wage gap results with employers, who, in turn, are obligated to share it to their workers’ representatives.23
7.2.3. Portugal generates statistics from a mandatory annual employment survey
Portugal provides detailed information about the data available for calculating wage gap statistics the annual, longstanding Quadros de Pessoal employment survey (OECD GPTQ 2022). Employers provide individual level pay information for each worker in the survey:
Quadros de Pessoal (QP) is a mandatory annual employment survey collected by the Portuguese Ministry for Labour, Solidarity, and Social Security, which each firm with at least a single wage earner in the private sector is legally obliged to complete. QP has existed since 1985 and contains information on the firm (location, industry, employment, sales, ownership, and legal setting, among other features), and on each of its workers (gender, age, education, skill, occupational category, tenure, wages, hours worked, and more).
The information on earnings is very complete. It includes the monthly base wage (gross pay for normal hours of work), regular and non-regular benefits, and overtime pay, as well as the mechanism of wage bargaining. Information on normal and overtime hours of work is also available. From 1994 and thereafter data reported in QP refer to the month of October of each year. Firms and workers entering the QP dataset are assigned a unique identification number that makes it possible to track firms and workers over time. Also, the worker files include the number of the firm to which each worker is affiliated in a given year, making it possible to match firms and their workers, and to identify each worker-firm pair.
The possibility to match workers with their employers, the longitudinal nature of the data, and the long-time span covered, makes QP an appropriate source to empirically evaluate wage persistence effects. Moreover, employer-reported wage information is known to be subject to less measurement error than worker-reported data.
With these data, the Ministry of Work, Solidarity and Social Security creates a publicly available “Barometer of Pay Differences between Women and Men.”24 This Barometer presents average adjusted gender wage gaps across different firm sizes and sectors. The adjusted gender pay gap used in the Barometer is similar to the factor-weighted gender pay gap used by the ILO, i.e. by “grouping” women and men in homogenous groups according to pre‑determined factors, and taking the weighted average of these groups in total population (International Labour Organisation, 2018[6]).
Information about each individual company is available for consultation only by the respective company itself and the labour inspectorate (Autoridade para as Condicoes do Trabalho (ACT)), for inspection purposes and preventive activities. Portugal requires companies to report aggregated pay gap information to individual employees and their representatives. However, individual employers’ results are not publicly disclosed, although the structure of the Quadros de Pessoal data suggest this could be possible.
7.2.4. Australia is researching digital solutions to ease employer reporting requirements
Australia is also exploring how to use pre‑existing data to address gender wage gaps. The first recommendation of the 2021 Australian Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Review) aimed to “make it easier for employers to report to Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and improve collection and sharing of gender data”. The focus was on finding ways to assist employers in extracting data from their own employer systems more easily using digital solutions whenever possible. In October 2022, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) established the Gender Data Steering Group (GDSG) in response to the Review. The GDSG’s purpose is to maximise the utilisation of the government’s significant data holdings as an evidence base for gender equality policy and contribute to the Gender Indicators Australia (GIA) and the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality.
The GDSG comprises representatives from across the Australian Government, such as WGEA, the Australian Taxation Office, and others. It fosters collaboration among government agencies in terms of collecting, sharing, and utilising gender disaggregated and intersectional data.
The use of administrative data would be a significant advancement, considering that Australian companies are currently required to share individual-level remuneration information with WGEA. With the introduction and passing of new legislation, employers will now report hours worked and actual earnings for base salary and total remuneration to WGEA. This eliminates the need for employers to annualise the data themselves, as WGEA will handle that task. WGEA then calculates the “remuneration gap” (which includes non-wage compensation) and provides a scorecard to each company. Compared to processes in other OECD countries, this is a relatively time‑intensive administrative. However, there is potential to streamline this process with the proposed use of existing government data.25
7.3. Non-governmental tools to facilitate pay reporting
An increasing number of non-governmental resources are available to support companies interested in gender pay gap analysis, either some provided freely or as part of a for-profit enterprise.
The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) has developed an Excel tool exclusively available to members of the Confederation. This tool assists employers in creating job groups, thus facilitating the comparison of pay for work of equal value. Additionally, the tool includes a report that presents women’s average salary as a percentage of the average salary for men in the different job groups and salary types (NHO, n.d.[7]).
In Spain, the Women’s Institute (Instituto de las Mujeres) under the Ministry of Equality offers an Advisory Service for Equality Plans and Measures. This is an initiative of the Women’s Institute promoted within the framework of Organic Law 3/2007, of 22 March for the effective equality of women and men, which aims to achieved effective equality between women and men in the workplace. Co-funded by the European Social Fund, this service is entirely free and provides guidance, tools, methodologies and training to companies in the negotiation, preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of equality plans (Women's Institute, n.d.[8]).
In the United States, several non-governmental organisations provide free gender pay gap calculators, including that of the Pew Research Centre26 and that of the Boston Women’s Workforce Council (BWWC) in collaboration with the Boston Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement (MOWA).27
Raður28 is a for-profit Icelandic consulting company that specialises in assisting companies seeking certification under Iceland’s equal pay standard. They guide organisations through the implementation of the equal pay standard and help them meet the conditions of equal pay certification. Raður supports organisations that aim to be leaders in equality issues and actively contributes to the development of solutions that ensure the sustainable operation of equal pay systems. They also provide professional support to managers in this field (Ráður, n.d.[9]).
Gapsquare29 is a for-profit software company based in the United Kingdom that offers a platform for companies to analyse and manage their gender pay and diversity data. Using advanced algorithms, their platform identifies patterns and provides insights within the data, enabling companies to make informed decisions about diversity and inclusion policies. Additionally, Gapsquare provides consulting services to help companies interpret their data and develop effective strategies for promoting diversity and inclusion.
7.4. Government initiatives in countries without private sector pay reporting requirements
Some countries without private sector pay transparency mandates are taking alternative approaches to encourage and support employers in calculating gender pay gaps.
In Estonia, a digital tool called the Pay Mirror30 is being developed to assist employers in analysing and reporting gender pay gaps in their organisations. The prototype of this tool was created in the framework of the gender wage gap research project REGE in co‑operation with Tallinn University and Statistics Estonia. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Statistics Estonia are responsible for further development, and the finalised and published tool is planned for the beginning of 2024. The application will generate an organisation payroll report automatically from the registry data, making it easy and accessible for employers to identify the pay gap in their organisation.
Poland launched the Equality of Wages application31 in April 2017, which enables companies to estimate differences in employee remuneration easily, taking into account factors such as gender, age, education and other selected characteristics. In other words, the application provides an estimate of the adjusted wage gap. The application is available free of charge on the Ministry’s website and supports employers in shaping informed and non-discriminatory payroll policies. From 2017 to 2019, the website with the application recorded over 10 300 visits. By using the application, employers can avoid additional administrative or financial burdens.
In the Czech Republic, the government’s Strategy for Equality Between Women and Men 2021 – 2030 encourages the use of the Logib system (Box 7.1) by government agencies and employers for equal pay analyses. Logib is utilised by labour inspectorates for equal pay inspections and by medical facilities of the Ministry of Health. There will also be an incentive for employers to use Logib in European Social Fund projects. The use of Logib and standardisation of pay audits are outputs of the “Equal Pay“ project conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The Action Plan for Equal Pay of Women and Men 2023‑26 approved by government in December 2022 includes measures such as recommending the analysis of remuneration systems in state‑owned enterprises, contributory organisations and regional authorities using the Logib tool. It also involves developing a strategy for supporting equal pay in public procurement through the utilisation of Logib.
In New Zealand, where pay reporting is only mandatory in the public sector, the “Mind the Gap32” public pay gap registry encourages pay gap reporting from all private sector businesses. The registry entry features the names of the Board Chair and CEO. It is recommended that all employers of 50 or more people report their pay gaps on Mind the Gap. The registry primarily focuses on inviting large employers to report on the registry (with 160+ invitations sent) for maximum impact. However, small businesses are also welcome to voluntarily report on the registry, and several small to medium-sized businesses have chosen to do so. In general, for organisations with fewer than 50 employees, it is recommended that they undertake pay reviews and work to address the gaps they find (MindTheGap, n.d.[10]).
References
[4] Aumayr-Pintar, Christine (2020), “Measures to promote gender pay transparency in companies: How much do they cost and what are their benefits and opportunities?”, Eurofound, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/wpef20021.pdf.
[1] Cowper-Coles, M. et al. (2021), Bridging the gap? An analysis of gender pay gap reporting in six countries, https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/bridging-the-gap-full-report.pdf.
[2] EPIC (n.d.), Logib is Epic’s 1st Good Practice, https://www.equalpayinternationalcoalition.org/whats_new/logib-is-epics-1st-good-practice/ (accessed on 3 March 2023).
[6] International Labour Organisation (2018), Global Wage Report 2018/19: What lies behind gender pay gaps, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_650553.pdf.
[10] MindTheGap (n.d.), MindTheGap, https://www.mindthegap.nz/registry (accessed on 21 November 2022).
[7] NHO (n.d.), Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, https://arbinn.nho.no/forretningsdrift/diskriminering/likelonnskartlegging-verktoy-steg-for-steg/ (accessed on 21 November 2022).
[5] OECD (2021), Pay Transparency Tools to Close the Gender Wage Gap, Gender Equality at Work, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eba5b91d-en.
[3] Procedure 2021/0050(COD) (n.d.), “Equal pay for equal work between men and women (pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms)”, European Commission, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021PC0093.
[9] Ráður (n.d.), Ráður, https://radur.is/ (accessed on 21 November 2022).
[8] Women’s Institute (n.d.), Ministry of Equality, https://www.igualdadenlaempresa.es/asesoramiento/home.htm (accessed on 21 November 2022).
Notes
← 1. Canada’s pay reporting regulation is two‑fold. Pay gap reporting under the Employment Equity Act applies to federally regulated private‑sector employers with 100 or more employees. These employers submit annual reports to the Minister of Labour by 1 June of each year. Conversely, under the Pay Equity Act, federally-regulated employers in both the private (10 employees or more) and public sectors (no employee threshold) are required to submit an annual statement on their pay equity plans to the Pay Equity Commissioner.
← 2. The initiatives listed here are not exhaustive of all efforts in the OECD to support companies in gender pay gap reporting. Some countries may not have reported these efforts in their response to the 2022 Gender Pay Transparency Questionnaire.
← 3. Online‑Toolbox at www.einkommensbericht.gv.at offers guidance for each step of the pay gap report.
← 4. Information and support available for the private sector at https://ny.bufdir.no/fagstotte/produkter/aktivitets__og_redegjorelsesplikt_for_arbeidsgivere/.
← 5. Available at https://emploi.belgique.be/fr/actualites/check-list-non-sexisme-et-classification-des-fonctions.
← 6. Available at https://www.wgea.gov.au/what-we-do/reporting.
← 7. Available at https://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/droit-du-travail/egalite-professionnelle-discrimination-et-harcelement/indexegapro.
← 8. Available (in Icelandic) at https://www.jafnretti.is/is/vinnumarkadur/jafnlaunastadfesting/fraedslumyndbond.
← 9. Available on Youtube (in Swedish) at https://youtu.be/Qinhj0ZUHhY.
← 10. These videos (in Norwegian) are collected on a playlist on YouTube, available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjpNIfkX49jFS8hPDzqOrvI6Umo7RDFig.
← 11. Available at https://www.wgea.gov.au/tools/the-gender-pay-gap-calculator in Excel format.
← 12. Available at www.bufdir.no/arp in Excel format.
← 13. Available online at https://index-egapro.travail.gouv.fr for relevant employers or in Excel format at https://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/droit-du-travail/egalite-professionnelle-discrimination-et-harcelement/indexegapro.
← 14. Available at http://calculadora.cite.pt/index.php/welcome/home.
← 15. Offered by the France Université Numérique and available at https://www.fun-mooc.fr/fr/cours/tout-savoir-sur-lindex-de-legalite-professionnelle-femmes-hommes/.
← 16. Available at (in Swedish) https://e-utbildning.do.se/lonekartlaggning/lonekartlaggning/samverkan/index.html.
← 17. Available (in Icelandic) at https://www.stjornarradid.is/verkefni/mannrettindi-og-jafnretti/jafnretti/jafnlaunavottun/embla-launagreiningartol/.
← 18. See https://www.eeoc.gov/federal-sector/management-directive/instructions-federal-agencies-eeo-md-715.
← 19. The government also needs to know the size of the employer, to determine whether they are required to report – but this information should be observable from the dataset in use.
← 20. Amendments to Lithuania’s State Social Insurance Law entered into force on 4 January 2021, which allow the Social Insurance System to publish company wages differentiated by gender (Article 15, Part 3, Clause 6 of the State Social Insurance Law).
← 21. Information gathered during a virtual fact-finding mission with representatives of the Government of Lithuania in the Social Insurance Group, the Equal Opportunities, Equality between Women and Men Group, and Labour Law Unit.
← 22. More information available on this survey at https://www.dst.dk/en/Statistik/dokumentation/documentationofstatistics/structure-of-earnings.
← 23. Information gathered during a virtual fact-finding mission with representatives of the Government of Denmark in the Ministry of Employment and Statistics Denmark.
← 24. Available at http://www.gep.mtsss.gov.pt/trabalho.
← 25. Information gathered during a virtual fact-finding mission with representatives of the Government of Australia in the Women’s Economic Security Branch at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australian Government Office for Women.
← 27. Available at https://wagegapcalculator.org/.
← 28. See https://radur.is/ fore more.
← 29. See https://gapsquare.com/ for more.
← 30. There is no webpage at the moment about the project, however, some information is available about the prototype in the report of the research project https://www.etag.ee/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RITA-1-lopparuandne_REGE_projekt_31.03.22_parandatud.pdf (p. 76‑80) and on the home page for the research project https://rege.tlu.ee/.
← 32. Available at https://www.mindthegap.nz/registry.