Britain’s biggest companies should be subject to an annual audit by the equalities watchdog to check which ones are paying women less than men, according to the Labour party.
Gloria de Piero, the shadow equalities minister, will call on Thursday for an “annual equal pay check” to be carried out by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.
Under new legislation, companies employing more than 250 people will have to publish in their annual reports the pay gap between men and women from next year.
However, Labour has pointed out that his information will be spread disparately throughout each company’s documents, rather than being centrally recorded.
In an opposition day debate, it will call for the EHRC to work with the Low Pay Commission to analyse the data collected by each company and look at the trends across different sectors.
De Piero will table a motion arguing that such an annual equal pay check would use the information published by companies to monitor progress on how the UK is doing to close the gender pay gap.
A source close to Nicky Morgan, the education secretary and equalities minister, said the government was already doing a lot of work in this area.
Morgan is expected to say that the response to the gender pay gap from government and employers must “reflect the complexity [of the problem], and avoid oversimplifying the issue, which unfortunately does still happen.
“That is precisely why in the previous government, and under this one, we are taking action on all fronts. It is why we taking action to raise girls’ aspirations; to support women with childcare and to get more women up the career ladder,” she will say.
Campaigners point out that Britain still has a gender pay gap of 19%, which is the sixth highest in the European Union, and equates to women earning 81p for every pound earned by men.
The gender pay gap in Britain is the sixth highest in the EU, behind countries including Italy and Poland, at 19.1% (the equivalent of women earning 81p for every male pound).
A report from the UN’s International Labour Organisation estimates that it would take 70 years for the global pay gap to close at the current rate of progress.
Women with children also face a “motherhood gap” and can expect to earn less than childless women when they return to work, with the difference increasing for every child they have.
