Hogan Lovells collaborates on Guide to Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting

Press releases | 14 April 2021

London, 14 April 2021 - Hogan Lovells has collaborated with Business in the Community (BITC) on a “Guide for General Counsels: Insights into Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting”.

Launched today, the Guide is aimed at General Counsels who advise Boards on a regular basis. It looks at the legal considerations behind ethnicity pay gap reporting, in particular the data protection and employment concerns, that can become a perceived barrier to publishing these statistics.

It also seeks to debunk the legal myths that may prevent organisations from publishing their reports, and analyses the anatomy of a really powerful ethnicity pay gap report. The Guide is designed to start a crucial conversation about how to innovate in an area of policy and law that is in flux, beyond the obligations that have been in place for gender pay gap reporting since April 2017.

With the 5 April deadline for gender pay gap reporting postponement due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Guide will provide a useful conversation starter for organisations planning on publishing their ethnicity pay gap later this year.

Stefan Martin, lead partner and head of Hogan Lovells London Employment practice, said: “That our Guide is aimed at General Counsels, not solely the Diversity & Inclusion teams in an organisation, is important as it recognises a shift in attitude due to the cataclysmic events of the last year – Diversity & Inclusion, as with Pro Bono work, should be embedded in core business, rather than being seen in a supporting role. Publishing ethnicity pay gap data will not end discrimination based on ethnicity, but it will help identify inequalities and empower employers to take active steps to address them”.

The Guide also celebrates the hard work of the many BITC Race at Work Charter signatories that have voluntarily published their ethnicity pay gaps. Signing the BITC Race at Work Charter requires a commitment by employers to support ethnic minority employees in the workplace. This includes requirements to capture ethnicity data and publicise progress, and to take action that supports ethnic minority career progression.

Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting is an important step, and many Charter signatories have published their gap, although reporting is currently voluntary in the UK. There is a growing movement behind mandatory ethnicity pay reporting, including a 2020 petition that received over 130,000 signatures.

To give cross-sector, first-hand insight into how organisations are approaching their reports, BITC signatories Canada Life, the Chartered Insurance Institute, Mott Macdonald, Network Rail and Teach First, have contributed practical tips to the Guide.

Sandra Kerr CBE, Director of Race at BITC, commented: “We are delighted to collaborate with Hogan Lovells on this insightful – must read guide – for all legal counsels. The Race at Work 2018 asked the questions of employees about capturing ethnicity data and pay and we are asking the same question again in Race at Work 2021 which is open until the end of June. What will the results be? Definitely not the overwhelming yes, that we need to see as we are still waiting on the government to respond to the consultation and announce the implementation of mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting. We know that employees want increased transparency on pay and progression opportunities and ethnicity pay gap report will give the indicators needed to better understand if and where the disparities may lie.”

Led by Stefan Martin and the Hogan Lovells Pro Bono team, core team includes: counsel Jo Broadbent; associate Rhian Lewis; and trainee Guntash Gill, with support from: International Pro Bono Director Yasmin Waljee; EMEA Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing Manager Julie-Anne Johnston; EMEA Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing Adviser Talia Chirouf; Global Managing Partner for Diversity & Inclusion and Responsible Business Susan Bright; senior associates Anvita Sharma and Dan Whitehead; and associates Emily Davis and Amol Chalisgaonkar.

View the report here.

Register to join the launch webinar at 10.30-12.00 today, hosted by BITC, here.

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