MPs have attacked the government's refusal to reassess gender pay reporting rules to include small firms.
Chairwoman of the HM Treasury committee, Nicky Morgan, said she was disappointed at the government's response to the committee's call for a reform of the rules.
The MPs had called for the regulations to include partners and firm subsidiaries in their Women in Finance Report in June.
But in its response out today (13 September) the economic secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, and the minister for women, Victoria Atkins, stated the regulations were still in their "infancy" and would not be reviewed before a term of five years is finished.
The response read: "The government believes that [five years] is an adequate time frame after which we will be able to properly evaluate the regulations and their impact."
Introduced in 2017, the gender pay gap reporting rules require all large organisations to publish data on their gender pay gap annually but exclude small firms, small subsidiaries, and partners who are paid differently to employees.
Mr Glen and Ms Atkins said they were impressed with how organisations had embraced the reporting requirements and were yet to see evidence of any firms seeking to evade their responsibilities under the regulation.
But Ms Morgan said the exemption of partners and subsidiaries with fewer than 250 employees from pay gap reporting could impact data trends and any conclusions drawn.
She said: "Whilst it is pleasing to see some employers already taking the initiative, it is disappointing that the government will not consider amending the gender pay gap reporting regulations for five years."
The committee's June report also recommended bonuses in the financial sector should be assessed against clear criteria in an effort to "abolish the alpha-male culture" and senior men should lead by example to remove the stigma surrounding flexible working.
Anna Sofat, founder at Addidi Wealth, agreed the government was sending the wrong message by not reviewing gender pay gap reporting regulations to include subsidiaries and partners.
She said: "Half commitments are worse than almost none - if companies are not held to account with a full spotlight then things will fall back into the previous comfortable culture around gender pay.
"For me this approach does not say we are really determined -it sort of says we are making the right noises but actually we have other priorities."
Elsewhere in the government's response, Mr Glen and Ms Atkins identified changing the gender culture of a firm or sector as one of the "toughest issues" to address - noting the "woefully low" number of women in leadership levels in financial services was "morally wrong" and damaging to productivity.
However, the pair said they were encouraged by the specific actions firms who have signed the Women in Finance Charter have taken towards creating "genuine cultural change" within their organisation.
In March, asset management group Jupiter reported a 38 per cent gender pay gap while Barclays' gap of 43.5 per cent was branded "shocking" by Ms Morgan in February.
rachel.addison@ft.com
