The Government has “no intention” of making gender pay gap reporting mandatory in Jersey, according to an Assistant Chief Minister – who said creating a statutory obligation would entail “quite a significant cost” and place “too much burden on businesses”.
Deputy Carina Alves reaffirmed the Government’s position as part of a special scrutiny hearing about gender pay gap reporting held by the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel this afternoon.
The aim of the meeting was to establish what, if anything, the Government is doing to encourage gender pay gap reporting in both the public and private sectors.
It comes after Statistics Jersey’s most recent gender pay gap report – published in March – revealed an average gap of 7.8% in the island during the 12 months leading up to June 2024.
The report’s publication prompted calls for Government to take a more active role in encouraging transparency around company’s gender pay gaps.
Annual gender pay gap reporting has been mandatory in the UK for companies with 250 or more employees since 2017.
Jersey’s former Chief Minister Kristina Moore said that her Government was “actively considering” mandatory reporting of pay gap statistics and had produced templates for this in 2023.
But Deputy Alves today said that there are no plans for the current Government to legislate mandatory gender pay gap reporting.
She said: “Gender pay gap reporting is already being completed by Government and State-owned enterprises.
“The intention not to legislate [gender pay gap reporting in the private sector] is around placing too much burden on businesses.
“It would entail quite a significant cost to Government to administrate that in terms of budget, but also the resources for legislative drafting and maintaining that.”
Deputy Alves added that Government did not think that mandatory pay gap reporting would “automatically ensure gender pay equality”.
The Assistant Chief Minister said that, instead, the Government is focussing its resources on policies that will tackle social inclusion and equality.
She explained that a framework is being created alongside the private sector that will be endorsed for use by Government to encourage voluntary gender pay gap reporting.
This is due to be completed by the end of the year.
Deputy Alves added that the Government is also looking to tackle “unconscious biases in recruitment”.
Deputy Louise Doublet – who was co-opted to the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel for today’s special hearing – said: “Can I ask what Government would be willing to spend in order to address gender inequality?”
In response, Deputy Alves confirmed that there is no specific budget for that issue.
She added that there is 0.2 of a full-time policy officer working on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a whole.
“Obviously, that’s not just the gender pay gap,” she explained.
“That also includes things like the International Cultural Centre.”
Deputy Doublet quizzed the Assistant Chief Minister over whether she thought “one-fifth of a full-time officer” was enough for all diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
“Personally, no, I don’t,” admitted Deputy Alves.
“But I understand that people have different views around the Council of Ministers’ table.
“Ideally, I would like somebody – maybe full-time – to bring everything together.”