What Every Employer Needs to Know about Menopause in 2026
On 4 March 2026, ahead of International Women’s Day, the Government published its Menopause Employment Action Plan alongside new guidance for employers under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
From April 2026, employers with 250 or more staff will have the option to publish a voluntary Menopause Action Plan alongside their gender pay gap data. From spring 2027, subject to secondary legislation, this becomes mandatory and publicly visible to staff, recruits and stakeholders.
If you employ fewer than 250 people, the reporting requirement does not apply to you directly. But your legal obligations do not reduce with headcount. Every employer, regardless of size, has duties under UK legislation, and where menopause symptoms are severe or long-lasting, reasonable adjustments become a legal duty, not a discretionary choice.
As Menopause Action Plans become publicly visible across larger organisations, employee expectations around menopause support will shift across every sector.
Whether you have 25 employees or 2,500, if you lead on HR, people strategy or workplace equality, this requires your attention now.
Why this matters now
One in three women in the UK workforce is currently experiencing menopause or perimenopause. One in ten women who worked during the menopause left a job because of their symptoms.
Eight out of ten women aged 45 to 55 say their workplace does not offer basic menopause support. These are not junior employees. They are experienced professionals, often in senior, specialist or leadership roles.
The cost of losing them is considerable. And the cost of not acting is increasing.
What the new menopause legislation requires
Employers must publish Menopause Action plans on the gender pay gap service alongside your organisation’s gender pay gap data, making them publicly visible to staff, recruits and stakeholders.
Additional guidance covering the steps employers should take when developing their action plan will be published in April 2026.
Our free guide walks you through what needs to be in place before that guidance lands.
What should a menopause employment action plan include?
The Government’s recommended actions for supporting employees experiencing menopause cover six specific areas:
- Review policies and procedures to meet the needs of employees experiencing menopause, including flexible working, reasonable adjustments and leave provisions
- Train managers to support employees experiencing menopause, covering symptoms, legal obligations and how to have supportive conversations
- Offer workplace adjustments for employees experiencing menopause, including environmental, workload and scheduling considerations
- Conduct a menopause risk assessment for your workplace
- Offer occupational health advice for employees experiencing menopause
- Set up menopause support groups and networks
Our free checklist helps you assess where your organisation currently stands across the policy, training, workplace adjustments and risk assessment areas. It is a starting point, honest and practical.
For a full gap analysis across all six areas, including occupational health provision and support networks, our HOTB Menopause Action Plan Standard programme (launching April 2026) takes you through every step. Get in touch to find out more.
The legal implications
Menopause in the workplace sits across three pieces of legislation.
The Equality Act 2010 protects employees from discrimination based on sex, age and disability. Where symptoms are severe or long-lasting, they may meet the threshold for disability, making reasonable adjustments a legal requirement. Tribunal awards are uncapped. This applies to every employer, regardless of size.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a duty on employers to protect the health and welfare of all staff, including assessing and managing workplace conditions that may worsen menopause symptoms. Again, there is no size threshold, this applies to all organisations.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 requires larger employers with 250 or more staff to publish Menopause Action Plans voluntarily from April 2026, mandatory from spring 2027. If you employ fewer than 250 people, publishing a plan is not a requirement. But the Equality Act and Health and Safety obligations remain fully in force. And as larger employers begin publishing their plans publicly, employee expectations around menopause support will shift across every sector, regardless of where you sit on headcount.
For the first time, what organisations are doing — or not doing — will be visible. That changes the conversation for everyone.
Legal risk most commonly arises where symptoms are dismissed, performance is managed without medical consideration, or reasonable adjustments are not explored. A clear menopause policy, documented manager training and consistent HR procedures are essential across all three frameworks.
What happens if you don’t act?
Organisations that do not act on menopause support face three compounding risks: legal exposure under the Equality Act, reputational risk as action plans become publicly visible and ongoing loss of experienced staff at a time when retention is already under pressure.
Only 24% of employees currently know of a formal menopause policy at their workplace. For most organisations, the gap between intention and demonstrable action is significant.
The employers who move now, before the mandatory deadline, will be better positioned on all three fronts.
Workplace Menopause training
The government’s own guidance when it comes to Menopause Action Plans, asks employers to consider how menopause intersects with other characteristics including ethnicity, disability status and socioeconomic background. That’s exactly how we design our training. We recognise younger and surgical menopause, neurodivergent experiences, cultural differences and the people supporting someone through it, because a menopause strategy that only works for some of your workforce isn’t fully inclusive.
Head here to find out more about the menopause, hormone health & neurodiversity training that we can support your organisation with, tailored to your sector.
