UK gender pay gap calculation, step by step

Who reports, and by when

An employer reports for each year in which it has 250 or more employees on its snapshot date, counting people, not full-time equivalents. A group reports separately for each legal entity that reaches 250. The snapshot date is 5 April for private and voluntary sector employers and 31 March for most public authorities, and the figures must be published within 12 months of it.

Public authorities in Scotland and Wales have their own specific duties, with different rules. The private sector rules are in the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/172); the public sector rules are in Schedule 1 to the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/353). The calculations are the same in both.

Step 1: relevant and full-pay relevant employees

Relevant employees are everyone employed on the snapshot date: part-time staff, job-sharers and people on leave included, and some self-employed people who must do the work themselves. Partners and LLP members are not included. Agency workers count for the agency, not for you.

Full-pay relevant employees are the relevant employees who were not paid at a reduced rate, or nil, in the relevant pay period because they were on leave: annual, maternity, paternity, adoption, parental, shared parental, sick or special leave. Someone on full-paid annual leave is full-pay; someone on statutory maternity pay is not. Only full-pay relevant employees go into the hourly pay figures and the quartiles. Everyone relevant goes into the bonus figures.

The GOV.UK guidance, updated on 21 May 2026 after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the meaning of sex in the Equality Act 2010, says reporting must be based on each employee’s biological sex, and explains what to do for an employee with a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Step 2: ordinary pay in the relevant pay period

The relevant pay period is the pay period that includes the snapshot date. For a private employer paying monthly on the 1st, that is 1 April to 30 April. Ordinary pay (regulation 3) is gross pay before tax, National Insurance and employee pension contributions, after any salary sacrifice:

Only pay for that period counts: leave out back pay or arrears that belong to another period.

Step 3: bonus pay, twice

Bonus pay (regulation 4) is money, vouchers, securities, securities options or interests in securities that relate to profit sharing, productivity, performance, incentive or commission. It is used twice:

• For hourly pay, the bonus paid in the relevant pay period to each full-pay relevant employee, prorated if it covers a longer period. The GOV.UK example: a £2,300 bonus for three months, paid in a monthly pay period, is £2,300 divided by 91.32 days and multiplied by 30.44, which is £766.79.
• For the bonus figures, every bonus paid in the 12 months ending on the snapshot date, to every relevant employee, not prorated.

Step 4: weekly hours and the hourly rate of pay

Weekly working hours (regulation 7) are the contracted hours if they do not vary. If they vary, use the average over the 12 weeks ending with the last complete week of the pay period, skipping weeks with no work. Overtime hours are left out.

The hourly rate of pay (regulation 6) is ordinary pay plus prorated bonus for the pay period, multiplied by 7 divided by the number of days in the pay period, divided by weekly working hours. A month counts as 30.44 days.

The GOV.UK example: £1,000 ordinary pay and £300 bonus in a 14-day pay period, 40 weekly hours. 7 ÷ 14 is 0.5, so £1,300 × 0.5 = £650, and £650 ÷ 40 = £16.25 an hour.

The six measures

A positive gap means women are paid less than men; a negative gap means men are paid less than women. The guidance accepts figures as whole percentages or to one decimal place.

Quartile bands when the numbers do not divide by four

The guidance says what to do with the people left over: one goes to the lower band; two go to the lower and upper middle bands; three go to the lower, lower middle and upper middle bands. Its example has 4,445 full-pay relevant employees: 1,112 in the lower band and 1,111 in each of the others. Where people on the same hourly pay fall either side of a dividing line, each band must hold the same proportion of men and women from that group, as far as possible (regulation 13(2)). The formula page works through both rules.

Publishing and the written statement

• Report the figures on the government’s gender pay gap service and publish them on your own website, where employees and the public can see them, for at least three years (regulation 15).
• Private and voluntary sector employers add a written statement confirming the figures are accurate, signed by a director or equivalent, a designated LLP member, a partner, or another senior person depending on the type of body (regulation 14). The signer’s name and job title also go on the service. Most public authorities do not need one.
• A supporting narrative explaining the gap and what you are doing about it is optional.
• Employers with 250 or more employees can also publish a voluntary action plan on the service. GOV.UK says that, subject to legislation, these will become mandatory from spring 2027.
• Late or inaccurate reporting can lead to enforcement by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and late reports get a public late badge on the service.