It is illegal to discriminate, harass or victimise in the UK workplace, under The Equality Act 2010, yet over 3000 employment tribunals, related to pay gap issues, ran their full course over the last two years. 

Men still on average, earn more than their female colleagues in the UK. Reports issued by The Government Equalities Office show the UK pay gender gap has remained static at 11.9 % this year versus 11.8% last year, across 10,814 employers.

The CEO of the Fawcett Society, Sam Smethers, called for reform in the law. The #MeTooPay campaign, launched recently by more than 100 of Britain’s most successful businesswomen, is lobbying for more transparency in the pay process. 

Since 2017 it has been mandatory for all companies in Britain, employing more than 250 staff, to report their gender pay gap to The Government Equalities Office. The Equality and Human Rights Commission carries a remit to enforce reporting compliance, but does not monitor the pay gaps year on year, or check the accuracy of the data.  There are no guidelines or targets in place per industry sector, just an annual name and shame process. The Women’s Equality Party has warned that employers could manipulate their pay gap data, and called for further breakdown by age, ethnicity, disability and gender.

The data should, over time, highlight companies failing to address pay differences between men and women, but many argue this is simply not enough to drive the change required. We cannot conclude from the data if women are being paid less than men, in the same roles. Many companies have a gender pay gap because men dominate their highest earners. Cranfield University reported its concerns in 2018 on the number of women in full-time FTSE 250 executive roles, which stood at 6.4% of the total in 2018, and had decreased from the previous year (38 roles in 2017, and 30 in 2018).

Most companies have good policies in place, but have issues with their deployment or development. Boards can learn from those who are leading the way, and consider re-assessing some of the following actions: –

1. Understand the underlying root causes specific to the company. Feedback from recruitment candidates and employees can help enormously;
2. Develop recruitment practices to attract female talent and review flexible working practices to retain the talent;
3. Maintain objective, transparent and audited pay grading systems and processes, as they can be complex and have legacy issues;
4. Ensure grievance policies are transparent and deployed in a fair and consistent way, throughout the organisation, should the need arise. 

Women should not be paid less than men to do exactly the same job. An injustice to one is a threat made to all.

Part 2 to follow which explores the darker aspects of equal pay claims.