Gender Pay Gap Reporting in Northern Ireland

Quick Hits

• Pay equity developments in the UK sit alongside the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which introduces new and additional reporting obligations in the Republic of Ireland, and the Employment Rights Bill, which introduces additional obligations in England, Scotland, and Wales.
• Gender pay gap reporting has been in discussion in Northern Ireland since the Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, but has faced significant delays, largely due to the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
• Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities cited plans to publish draft regulations “as soon as possible,” but implementation is not expected before 2027, with the first employer reports likely to be due in 2028 based on 2027 snapshot pay data.

On 7 October 2025, the DfC issued its consultation response, which broadly mirrors the gender pay gap reporting framework already in place in the rest of the United Kingdom. The DfC proposes to align methodology with the Office for National Statistics approach used in England, Scotland, and Wales so that Northern Ireland results are comparable. This would mean employers must report on employees’ mean and median pay broken down by gender, with inclusion of bonuses, and the publication of pay quartiles.

The DfC has stated that further discussions will be required to confirm if Northern Ireland should adopt the same 250 employee reporting threshold as the rest of the UK or if a new threshold should be introduced to give consideration to the fifty-employee threshold in the Republic of Ireland, the DfC also stated that this issue would be reviewed in the context of “any further developments with the EU Pay Transparency Directive.” The DfC has also confirmed in its response that it will be mandatory to accompany gender pay gap data with action plans, as will be introduced in the rest of the UK in April 2026 on a voluntary basis, before becoming mandatory from 2027 by the UK Employment Rights Bill.

The response has indicated that plans for ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting will not be proceeding at present. The DfC concluded they would not be legally enforceable under existing data collection obligations, citing the absence of a legal requirement to gather ethnicity and disability data, voluntary disclosure norms for disability, and the risk of identification within smaller organisations. It will keep this position under review, including in light of developments in the UK’s Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.

The next steps include the DfC publishing draft Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations, potentially in early 2026, followed by Assembly consideration and finalisation of the legislation. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is expected to be responsible for monitoring and enforcement, with sanctions yet to be defined in the regulations.

The Impact of the EU Pay Transparency Directive

The ECNI and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) had previously jointly advised the Northern Ireland government to enact legislation to align with the EU Pay Transparency Directive’s (Directive (EU) 2023/970) gender pay requirements. This is due to the obligations of the Windsor Framework (the post-Brexit legal agreement between the UK and EU in place in Northern Ireland). While EU law no longer directly applies in the UK, under the Windsor Framework, the obligations of the EU Pay Transparency Directive may need to be implemented in Northern Ireland.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive requires member states to implement granular reporting, including category‑of‑worker breakdowns and joint pay assessments where unjustified gaps of 5 percent or more persist beyond six months. If changes are finalised, unlike the rest of the UK, an employer recruiting in Northern Ireland would need to publish the pay range for the role and would be prohibited from asking a candidate about their pay history. Employees based in Northern Ireland would also have the right to request information about the pay gap for men and women performing equal work or work of equal value. The DfC is expected to publish Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations in 2026, and it is thought that these regulations will assist in clarifying whether and to what extent the obligations of the EU Pay Transparency Directive will be brought into force in Northern Ireland.

For more on the EU’s pay transparency directive, see our previous articles, “EU Pay Transparency Directive: Updates on Implementation Across Member States,” “Preparing for the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive,” “EU Pay Transparency Directive: ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work or Work of Equal Value,” and “The June 2026 EU Pay Transparency Directive Implementation Deadline Looms.”

Further information can also be found by listening to our podcast, “Understanding the EU Pay Transparency Directive: What Employers Need to Know.”

Ogletree Deakins’ London office, Pay Equity Practice Group, and Workforce Analytics and Compliance Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Cross-Border, Pay Equity, and Workforce Analytics and Compliance blogs as additional information becomes available.

Daniella McGuigan is a partner in the London office of Ogletree Deakins and co-chair of the firm’s Pay Equity Practice Group.

Lorraine Matthews, a practice assistant in the London office of Ogletree Deakins, contributed to this article.

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