UK Pay Gap & Equality Action Plan Kit (Calculator + Template)

**If you file a gender pay gap report, GOV.UK now asks for a second document: an action plan.**

Employers with 250 or more employees can publish a voluntary equality action plan alongside their gender pay gap figures. The plan covers the gender pay gap and support for employees experiencing menopause. For 2026 to 2027 the deadline is **4 April 2027** (private, voluntary and all other public authority employers) or **30 March 2027** (most public authority employers). GOV.UK says that, **subject to legislation**, plans will become mandatory from spring 2027.

GOV.UK publishes the method and a list of 18 recommended actions, but no plan template. This kit fills that gap. It runs from payroll rows to your six figures, from the figures to the actions you choose, and from those actions to a finished plan with owners, measures and review dates.

## What's inside

- **Pay-gap calculator workbook (.xlsx):** paste up to 2,000 anonymised rows (employee ref, sex, hourly pay, full-pay relevant, bonus Y/N, bonus amount, job grade).

- **Dashboard:** the six statutory figures, men's and women's means and medians, the % of men and women in each pay quarter, the figures rounded for entry, and 3 charts.

- **Row checks** flag a missing sex, missing hourly pay, or a bonus marked Y with no amount.

- **Grade View (EU-style):** headcount, mean hourly pay and mean bonus for women and men in each grade, the gap in each grade, a 5% flag, and columns for your notes and actions.

- **Trend:** your figures year on year, with a chart.

- **Action Plan Tracker:** the 18 GOV.UK actions. Include or skip each one, mark it "new or in progress" or "embedded", and set an owner, measure, baseline, target and dates. A live word count checks the 100-word and 200-word limits, and a structure check confirms you have at least 1 gender pay gap action, at least 1 menopause action, and at least 2 marked "new or in progress".

- **Hourly Pay Helper:** (ordinary pay + bonus in the period) × 7 ÷ days ÷ weekly hours, as GOV.UK describes.

- **Sources sheet**, with links to every GOV.UK page used.

- **SAMPLE workbook:** the same file with 40 rows of clearly fake data for a fictional employer, so you can see every figure working before you paste your own.

- **Equality Action Plan template (DOCX + PDF):** organisation details, your figures, a "understand the issues" section built on the GOV.UK diagnostic questions, a who-we-consulted log, the 18-action picker, gender pay gap and menopause action cards (with examples), embedded actions, a 200-word narrative (with an example), a monitoring and review timeline, internal sign-off, a pre-submission checklist, and official sources with links. Appendix A lists GOV.UK's suggested measures for all 18 actions. Appendix B is a confidential menopause adjustments log.

- **2-page Quick-Start PDF** and README.

- **Consultant tier only:** a client data-request letter (DOCX) and a client tracker (XLSX) with deadlines and days left for each client entity.

## Who it's for

- HR, reward, payroll and finance managers at UK employers with 250+ employees who prepare the gender pay gap report.

- People teams that want their first action plan done well before the 2027 deadline.

- HR consultants and payroll bureaus that prepare figures and plans for several clients (Consultant tier).

- Employers under 250 that want to report voluntarily.

## Who it's not for

- Anyone looking for legal advice, an equal pay audit, or a view on whether a pay difference is justified. This kit calculates and organises; it does not judge.

- Public authorities in Scotland and Wales that follow different (devolved) rules, and employers in Northern Ireland. The GOV.UK guidance used here covers England, Scotland and Wales.

- Employers that need a full EU Pay Transparency Directive report. The Grade View is an EU-style check, not the full set of EU metrics.

- Anyone who wants a hosted payroll integration. This is a spreadsheet and document kit.

## Important

- **A readiness and organiser tool, not legal or HR advice. Check the current official guidance.**

- Rules are as of 3 Oct 2026, from official GOV.UK pages linked inside the kit. Action plans are voluntary for 2026 to 2027. GOV.UK still describes the mandatory phase as subject to legislation, so its timing and details may change.

- The kit does not certify compliance and does not guarantee any outcome. Results depend on the data you enter. You remain responsible for your data and your submission.

- Not affiliated with GOV.UK or the Office for Equality and Opportunity.

Format: .xlsx (Excel 2010+, Google Sheets, LibreOffice), .docx, .pdf. No macros. Instant download.

## FAQ

**Is this legal or HR advice?**

No. It's a readiness and organiser tool. It calculates figures from the data you enter, following the published GOV.UK method, and gives you a structured template. Check the current official guidance, and take professional advice where you need it.

**Are action plans mandatory?**

Not yet. For 2026 to 2027 they are voluntary (deadline 4 April 2027, or 30 March 2027 for most public authorities). GOV.UK says they will become mandatory from spring 2027, subject to legislation.

**Does it work in Google Sheets?**

Yes. Upload the .xlsx (File > Import). The formulas use only functions that Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice all support, with no macros and no array formulas. Charts can look slightly different in Google Sheets.

**Is my payroll data uploaded anywhere?**

No. Everything is calculated by formulas inside your own copy of the file. Use employee reference numbers, never names.

**How does it handle employees on the same hourly pay at a quarter boundary?**

GOV.UK says the proportion of men and women on that pay should be the same in each quarter it spans. The workbook spreads each sex evenly through the same-pay group, so a boundary splits them in proportion. It also applies the GOV.UK rule for headcounts that don't divide by 4.

**What's the 5% grade flag?**

Under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, a gap in average pay of at least 5% within a category of workers that isn't justified and isn't fixed within 6 months leads to a joint pay assessment. The UK has no such rule. The flag is just a quick way to see which grades to look at.

**Team or Consultant?**

Team covers one employer, including each legal entity in its own group. Consultant is for advisers who prepare figures or plans for client employers (up to 10 per purchase). It adds a client data-request letter and a client tracker.

**How many rows can it take?**

Up to 2,000 employees per workbook. For larger entities, contact us before buying.

**Do I get updates?**

Yes. Free v1.x updates when GOV.UK changes a rule the kit reflects.

## Refunds

14-day money-back guarantee: email labskaruna@gmail.com within 14 days of purchase for a full refund, no questions asked. If a file is broken or won't open, email labskaruna@gmail.com and we'll fix it or send a replacement.