Our guidance refers to anyone who is covered by equal pay law as an ‘employee’.
While both men and women can claim equal pay, we refer to a woman claiming equal pay for simplicity and to reflect the fact that most claimants are women.
As set out in the Equality Act 2010, men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay, unless any difference in pay can be justified.
It is the law and employers must follow it. You are at risk of an expensive employment tribunal case and reputational damage if you do not provide equal pay.
Equal pay applies to all contractual terms, not just pay. This includes:
The right to equal pay applies to many different work arrangements, including:
It does not matter how long they have been employed or whether they have a full time, part time, fixed term, zero hours or casual contract.
There are three kinds of equal work:
If a woman proves that she is doing equal work to a man, there is a legal presumption that any difference in their pay is because of their sex, unless the employer can show that a ‘material factor’ explains the difference.
A material factor must:
You might assume that you are providing equal pay, however many common practices can lead to risks with equal pay, such as:
An audit is the easiest and most effective way of checking if you have a problem with equal pay.
Our guide for small organisations with 50 or fewer employees shows how to carry out an equal pay review in three steps.
Our guide for large organisations with more than 50 employees shows how to carry out an equal pay audit in five steps.
Create an action plan to address any issues around equal pay. Effective action plans detail how you will fix the issues with clear timescales and reasons why this is the soonest it can be done.
Achieving and maintaining equal pay requires a fair, transparent and up-to-date pay system. To do this:
The core elements of a fair pay system include:
Documenting your decisions helps measure their impact and show that you have considered equal pay.
Once you have committed to providing fair and equal pay systems, make sure that your efforts are in the best interests of your business.
Reviewing how your systems work in practice will give you confidence that you are acting lawfully.
Good practice organisations often review their systems annually, paying specific attention to:
If your organisation is a public body in Wales or Scotland, an equality impact assessment of your policies and practices is likely to be needed to comply with your public sector equality duties.
If your organisation is a public body in England or is in the private sector, an equality impact assessment, or equality analysis is an effective way to assess the risk of the proposed changes (and in the case of a public body will help ensure you comply with the public sector equality duty).
It is important to provide equal pay in order to comply with the law by identifying, explaining and eliminating unjustifiable pay gaps, and to and to contribute to a fairer society in which everyone has equal opportunities.
If you do not act lawfully, you are at risk of:
If you are involved in an employment dispute or are seeking information on employment rights and rules, you can contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas):
Freephone: 0300 123 1100 (8am to 6pm Monday to Friday)
Text Relay service: 18001 0300 123 1100.