Equal Pay

The Equal Pay Act 1970 introduced the apparently straightforward idea that men and women should be paid the same wages for the same work. However, decades later, the Courts are still working out highly complex disputes as to how the law should be applied. In recent years, equal pay litigation has been one of the fastest growing areas of the Employment Tribunal’s work, largely due to a number of large scale public sector cases.

The 1970 Act is not about deciding whether or not you are paid enough for the work you do; rather it is about eliminating inequality between men and women.

You would potentially have a claim under the Act if you can point to someone employed by the same employer, who is of the opposite sex (men can have equal pay claims too!) who either;

• Does the same job
• Does work rated the same under a “job evaluation scheme “
• Does work “of equal value”.

Work of equal value is where it is argued that someone who does different work should be regarded as of equal status for comparing wages, for example school meals staff, who are mostly women, may argue that their work is of equal value to school caretakers, who are mostly men, but they are paid lower wages than their male comparators.

All equal pay claims are likely to be extremely complex both factually and legally and if you believe that you may have such a claim you should seek advice as to how to proceed.