Gender pay gap reporting regulations in the United Kingdom (UK) came into force in 2017, requiring employers with 250 or more employees to calculate and report their gender pay gaps annually.

The regulations were introduced as one tool that can assist in closing the gender pay gap in the UK. While the gender pay gap has been on a steady decline in the UK, like it has been in Australia, this rate of change has slowed in recent years, making gender inequality a persistent feature of the workforce.

The gender pay gap is an important indicator for understanding the state of workplace gender equality and how we value the contribution of men and women in the workforce. When employers take positive steps to understand and address their gender pay gaps, they support the workforce participation of all their employees which contributes to the broader effect of economic growth.

UK employers first reported their gender pay gap for the 2017-18 financial year. The annual requirement to report the gender pay gap was then temporarily suspended in the 2019-20 financial year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several studies consider the short-term impact in the initial years of gender pay gap publication in the UK. However, closure of the gender pay gap and realisation of gender equality in the workplace are a long-term project. The evidence base for sustained impact and change is encouraging but still emerging.

This paper considers how UK employers responded to gender pay gap publication through a review of the existing literature, which generally focuses on the first years of reporting and the initial effects of publication.