According to research by employment consultancy firm Mercer, over a half of UK companies believe that proposed gender pay gap reporting regulations will make little or no difference to the gender pay gap.

The regulations, which are due to come into effect in October this year, require employers with at least 250 employees to publicise what they pay male and female employees on average.

This pessimism could, however, have something to do with the fact that so far only 11 per cent of large companies have done any analysis on the levels of starting pay for men and women performing the same work. Instead, they have focused on introducing initiatives such as analysing the gender pay gap (54 per cent) and creating a diversity and inclusion strategy (54 per cent). Other initiatives include setting goals for female inclusion (22 per cent) or analysing labour flow and promotion rates by gender (27 per cent).

The research also showed that very few companies have investigated the potential drivers behind any pay gaps. For instance, only 22 per cent had looked into whether there was a gender pay gap with respect to promotion increases; only 9 per cent had looked at bonus awards; and a paltry 3 per cent had done any post-maternity analysis.

Although 51 per cent of companies expect the new mandatory reporting requirements to be 'difficult', 75 per cent think they are more or less 'ready' for them. Respondents were also positive about how their organization was likely to fare against national pay gap levels. Of those who expressed an opinion 65 per cent expected their organisation to perform well against the UK norm, while 84 per cent expected to perform well against their UK peers.

The research also shows that although almost all companies plan to do some work around the gender pay gap in the next 18 months, less than half intend to undertake any activity beyond the gender pay gap reporting requirement itself.

Mercer received responses from 114 organisations, of which 55 per cent are listed and include 40 per cent of the FTSE30.

Jo Seery of Thompsons Solicitors commented:

Given that the gender pay gap information regulations are expected to come into force on 1 October 2016 It is worrying so few companies have failed to grasp that gender pay gap reporting is the first step to tackling unequal pay. As the gender pay gap currently stands at 19.2% good employers should be tackling unequal pay now.