Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to close the gender pay gap.

Under new government legislation over 10,000 employers reported their gender pay gaps this year. These regulations increase transparency, driving board level discussions and pushing employers to take real action to close the gap.

We are now working with employers to help them understand their gender pay gaps, and support them to put plans in place to tackle gaps.

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting is just one of the steps government has taken to tackle the drivers of the gap including:

• introducing Shared Parental Leave and Pay and running a £1.5 million campaign to promote the scheme to eligible parents.
• extending the right to request flexible working and establishing a taskforce working with business to make flexible working a reality for all employees.
• creating a £5 million fund to support women and men who have been out of the labour market for a long period to return to work.
• spending around £6 billion on childcare support by 2019-20, around £3.5 billion of which is planned to be spent on free early education entitlements.