Scotland's Equal Pay Statements Duty — Audit Scotland's 2020 Equal Pay Review

Under Regulations 7 and 8 of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/162), listed Scottish public authorities with at least 150 employees must publish gender pay gap information by 30 April every second year and a statement on equal pay and occupational segregation by 30 April every fourth year. From the second statement onward the equal pay statement must also cover disability and minority racial group.
Audit Scotland, the public audit body, published its fourth-cycle Equal Pay Review in September 2020 covering 305 employees (excluding the Auditor General) as at 31 March 2020. It compared average full-time-equivalent salaries within each pay band, treating gaps above 5% (the EHRC Equal Pay Guidance threshold) as significant, and used an analytical job evaluation system agreed with the PCS union.
The review found few significant differentials across gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation and religion, and each one found was objectively justified (for example, a gap in the entry band explained by 75% of staff at the entry spine point being women recruited into graduate roles). Since 2017 the leadership-band differential fell from 3.8% to 1.1% and the disability differential fell to zero, after pay-range redefinition and shorter progression times.
Limits: this is a single organisation's self-reported audit, not an evaluation of whether the statutory duty narrows pay gaps across Scotland; small groups (under five people) are suppressed for data-protection reasons. The 5% threshold and 150-employee cut-off are the points other jurisdictions would need to calibrate.

Read the full analysis: https://audit.scot/uploads/docs/report/2020/as_equal_pay_review_20.pdf