Disability workforce and pay gap reporting

Disability workforce and pay gap reporting

Welcome to our disability workforce and pay gap reporting hub page, the home of all of our current policy and research work on measuring disability related diversity, inclusion, and pay in the workplace.

View our guidance, find out the latest on our disability data reporting research project, and view our blogs and media articles on the topic.

The impact of mandatory reporting requirements on global organisations

At BDF’s global conference in November 2024, our Director of Public and Policy and Research presented insights from global organisations on how they had been navigating data collection challenges that emerge from the UK. Read the blog here: How inclusive is disability inclusion across the globe?

Our workforce and pay gap research in the media

Our brilliant Disability Data Monitoring Working Group is the ‘engine’ behind our work in this area which has attracted many conference presentations and HR media attention. Some examples are as follows:

• On valuing diversity numbers over human experience, in People Management in June 2024: ‘As an inclusion profession we are so focused on targets that we’ve forgotten humans’
• On whether measuring disability data really does help us achieve inclusion, in Personnel Today, November 2021: Does measuring disability data really help us achieve workplace inclusion?

The Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

The Government has presented a Bill to Parliament which includes the provision to mandate employers with over 250 employees to report their disability pay gap. We have been exploring the unintended consequences of disability pay gap reporting with the Disability Data Monitoring Working Group alongside feedback alongside disabled employees. You can read our blog on why disability pay gap reporting may not be the answer to increasing employment opportunities for disabled people:

• Why disability pay gap reporting may not lead to increasing employment opportunities for disabled people

Research: Disability data monitoring group

We have completed our data collection on mandatory workforce and pay gap reporting, and we will be publishing this in October 2024.  

Business Disability Forum’s disability data monitoring working group consists of 65 employers who have been meeting throughout 2021 and 2023 to shape BDF’s work and Government consultation response on disability workforce reporting. We have met to share the challenges and benefits of accurately measuring the number of disabled employees who work in organisations, and we have been debating what the future of diversity workforce reporting looks like. Our key questions include:

• Does disability workforce reporting lead to a more inclusive workplace?
• How far does disability pay gap reporting accurately measure equality and inclusion?
• What are the unintended consequences of implementing a mandatory requirement for employers to report the number of disabled employees they employee and/or their disability pay gap figure?

Guidance: Beginning meaningful disability workplace reporting

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Business Disability Forum (BDF) has worked together to create guidance for employers to start collecting disability related workforce data. At the following links, you will find information about what to consider before you begin, how to plan for collecting data, and information about the wider context of disability workforce reporting.

• Disability workforce reporting: A practical guide for people professionals (October 2023)
• The case for disability workforce reporting (October 2023)

Join the disability data monitoring working group

The working group is for Partners and Member of BDF only. To join the group, please speak to your BDF Business Partner who can sign you up. You could also contact the policy and research team at policy@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk

Please note this working group is for data analysts working on diversity reporting, public policy and regulation, HR, and diversity and inclusion in their organisations.

Consultation response (2021): Disability workforce reporting consultation

In 2021, the UK Government published a consultation to consider whether employers with over 250 employees should be required to report the number of disabled people they employ. Measuring disability in this way in workforces has remained similar for almost two decades, so we felt we should challenge how much reporting has helped further inclusion so far.

You can read our full consultation response below, published in April 2022. The Government are currently analysing the responses to the consultation.