i) Recently, the Government published its draft Gender Pay regulations, implementing EU Directive 2006/54/EC on Equal Treatment. These are likely to come into force in October 2016 and firms employing more than 250 employees will have to capture i) the mean and median average gender pay differential by April 2017; ii) the mean bonus gender pay differential; and iii) the number of men and women in each salary quartile. The collated information must be published within the following year.
ii) The Government’s draft legislation on its Apprenticeship Levy was also recently published. The levy will be payable on 0.5% of a company’s payroll bill where it exceeds £3 million in a relevant year. The levy is being raised to fund apprenticeships in organisations nationwide, although some companies have suggested that this is just another tax on large employers. The levy will be effective from 6 April 2017.