Watchdog Urges Legal Right to Know Colleagues' Pay
The Equality and Human Rights Commission wants UK workers to be able to ask what colleagues earn, and wants employers banned from asking applicants about current pay.
UK workers should have a legal right to know what their colleagues are paid, the country's human rights watchdog has said. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says the aim is to prevent pay discrimination, particularly against women.
The EHRC made the recommendation in response to government proposals to overhaul equal pay laws. It said workers deserve transparency if they suspect other staff are paid more for similar work.
The watchdog also said employers should be banned from asking job applicants about their existing salaries. Companies may currently ask for that information, although recruits do not have to answer. In the EHRC's words, a requirement that stops employers asking about salary history or expectations, together with the proposed pay transparency measures, "will likely reduce pay gaps and discrimination against women".
What staff could ask
Ministers are considering forcing bosses to respond to staff questionnaires about colleagues' pay. A right of this kind was abolished in 2014 as part of a drive to cut bureaucracy for businesses.
The EHRC said the forms should let staff request information about a colleague doing similar work. That would cover annual salary and hours worked, as well as bonuses, overtime and the job description. Staff should also be able to ask for details of job evaluations carried out by employers. These include job grades, salary benchmarks, internal scores and a copy of any final evaluation record.
They should be able to ask for a ranking of each worker in a similar team, based on annual basic pay and hours. They should also be able to push for more information if the data seems inaccurate or incomplete.
The watchdog said employers must be forced to respond within a "specified timeframe". "Without such a requirement, employers may delay, provide evasive responses or avoid responding," it said. It suggested this should be a mandatory measure rather than an "optional" one.
Greater pay transparency could also help companies avoid employment tribunals, the EHRC said, producing "early resolution of pay disputes", and help close the UK's gender pay gap, where women have historically earned less than men. Office for National Statistics figures for April this year put the median gap for full-time workers at 6.8%, meaning women earned that much less than men on average. In the finance industry the mean and median gaps, at 24% and 22%, are double the national average for UK companies.
Source: The Guardian