Equal pay legislation

The Equality Act 2010 has harmonised existing laws on discrimination. As part of this, it is intended to create a more straightforward framework to address inequities in pay.  The law already says that men and women are entitled to equal pay for equal value in terms of basic pay and total pay, including allowances, bonuses and benefits.  It also covers other forms of discrimination such as ethnicity, disability and age. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission website explains the law and employers’ responsibilities in detail.

Ensuring compliance

One of the best ways to protect your organisation against equal pay risks is to have a pay structure that is based on an up to date, analytical job evaluation exercise, as this establishes exactly what the differences are between your roles. You can then use this to develop a pay structure that also takes account of external market forces.

If you have a thoroughly planned reward system in place, then you may still be at risk of a potentially costly equal pay claim.  Unless you review your systems regularly and check how they are being applied on the ground, then there is a risk that inequities may have crept in.

Are your pay practices compliant? We would be happy to advise you and to suggest if and how they could be improved - ask about our free Reward-Check service.

Equal Pay and Gender Pay Gap Assessments

The government will be establishing a voluntary scheme for gender pay reporting and we can help you to determine the pay gaps in your organisation.

We advise that it is always best to be aware of any potential equal pay issues. You can then consider what steps are needed to address them, limiting the prospect of having to disclose and defend any unresolved problems publicly at a later stage. If you find there is no significant pay gap, then you might even consider using this to help promote your organisation.

If you’ve never conducted an audit of your reward systems, then our Equal Pay Assessment service is for you.  We apply the Equality & Human Rights Commission's recommended approach to auditing pay practice.  It will review both basic pay and total pay, testing whether additional payments introduce bias to your reward framework.  We will also review your reward policies and how they operate in practice.

The presence of a gender pay gap is not in itself discriminatory.  We analyse the results to produce a short report that will highlight your gender pay gaps so that you can review these.  We can advise you on whether the differentials could be justifiable and warn you of any issues that need your attention.  

This is a service that we also recommend as part of any change in reward practice to check the potential impact it will have and frequently build this assessment into our broader work with clients, such as when we benchmark their pay structures against the market

See our Equal Pay Assessment flyer for more details or contact us to discuss how we can help.