24 Jun 2019
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on the government to make it mandatory for businesses to report their disability pay gaps.
The disability pay gap, which is the difference in pay between what disabled and non-disabled workers earn, currently comes to almost £3,000 a year, and is 'even higher' for disabled women, according to the TUC.
A voluntary code was established in November 2018 in order to encourage employers to disclose their disability pay gap information. However, the TUC says that without it being 'legally binding', progress in closing the disability pay gap will be 'too slow'.
Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC, said: 'Too many disabled people face poorer job prospects and lower pay. They've waited long enough for fair and equal treatment – and a light-touch, voluntary approach just isn't good enough. The evidence shows that it just doesn't work.'
When gender pay gap reporting was first introduced, 280 firms voluntarily signed up to it, but only five businesses published their results. Once it became mandatory, nearly 10,000 employers reported their gender pay gap data, delivering almost 100% compliance.