Equal pay day is 22 November
The statutory equal pay provisions are set out in the Equality Act 2010 . That legislation gives women (or men) a right to equal pay for doing equal work, by making it unlawful for employers to offer different pay and/or contractual benefits where women and men in the same or associated employment are doing:
(1) like work - work which is the same or broadly similar; (2) work that has been rated as equivalent under a fair job evaluation study; or (3) work that is of equal value - work that isn’t similar or rated as equivalent but is of equal value in terms of the demands made of them by reference to such factors as effort, skill and decision making.
An actual comparator of the opposite sex is needed to bring a claim, and they must work at the same establishment, or at a different establishment where common terms apply. The woman can then compare any term in her contract with the equivalent term in her male comparator’s contract, and her comparator can also be a predecessor or successor in the role.
However, there’s a “material factor” defence, i.e. where there’s a material reason for paying a man more than a woman which is not the difference of sex. This could include, for example, where the man has a higher level of skills, experience and/or qualifications and these are crucial for the role, or he’s paid more because he’s working somewhere where the cost of living is higher, such as London. Each case will turn on its own individual facts and circumstances, but the defence isn’t easy to make out.
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