Last updated: 3 September 2026
Gender pay gap reporting is required of large employers. We are not one, so this is not a statutory return. It is a statement of where we stand, published because construction has one of the widest pay gaps of any sector in the United Kingdom and a small firm saying nothing at all is part of how that persists.
1. Whether the law requires this of us
The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 require an employer with 250 or more employees on the snapshot date to calculate six figures, publish them, and upload them to the government reporting service within 12 months. The snapshot date is 5 April for private employers.
British Builders has nothing approaching 250 employees. The duty does not apply to us, and no statutory return is due. Nothing in this Statement should be read as one.
2. What we do instead
A small employer cannot produce a meaningful pay gap percentage. With a handful of people, one hire moves the figure by tens of percentage points and the number says more about arithmetic than about fairness. What a small employer can do is make each decision properly, and be able to show it.
| What we do | |
|---|---|
| Rate for the job | Pay is set against the role and the trade, not against the person negotiating for it. Two people doing the same job on the same qualifications are paid the same |
| Recruitment | Vacancies state the pay or the range. Nobody is asked what they earned in a previous job, because that carries an old employer's gap into ours |
| Progression | Advancement is on evidence of the work. Where a decision is close, it is explained in writing |
| Flexibility | Requests to work flexibly are considered on the same terms whoever makes them, and a request is not treated as a signal about commitment |
| Site conduct | Harassment and 'banter' that would deter anyone from working here are dealt with as conduct matters, not smoothed over. This matters more in our trade than any policy statement |
3. What a gender pay gap is, and is not
The distinction matters, and it is routinely muddled in reporting on the subject.
| What it means | |
|---|---|
| Gender pay gap | The difference in average pay across all men and all women in an organisation, whatever their role. A gap can exist where every individual is paid correctly, if the higher-paid roles are held mostly by one sex |
| Equal pay | Paying men and women the same for the same or equivalent work. This is a legal obligation under the Equality Act 2010, it applies to every employer of any size, and it applies to us |
So a pay gap is a question about who holds which jobs. Unequal pay is unlawful. We are subject to the second whatever our size, and we take the first seriously because our sector's gap is a recruitment problem as much as a fairness one.
4. Where our trade stands
Construction remains among the most male-dominated sectors in the United Kingdom, and the pipeline into skilled trades is narrower still. That is the context we recruit in. It explains a gap; it does not excuse one.
- We advertise apprenticeships and trainee roles as widely as we can afford to, rather than through word of mouth alone, because word of mouth reproduces the workforce we already have.
- We do not require experience that a role does not actually need.
- We work with subcontractors who hold the same line on conduct on site.
5. When this would change
If our headcount reached 250 on a snapshot date, the duty would apply from that date and we would have 12 months to calculate, publish and upload the full set of figures: mean and median hourly gaps, mean and median bonus gaps, the proportion of each sex receiving a bonus, and the proportion of each sex in each pay quartile.
Well before that we would expect to publish figures voluntarily, because at the point where a percentage starts to mean something it is worth knowing. We will say so here when we do.
6. Contact
| Details | |
|---|---|
| enquiries@british-builders.co.uk | |
| Phone | 0330 912 7443 |
| Regulator | Equality and Human Rights Commission, equalityhumanrights.com |
| Reporting service | gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk, where statutory returns are published |