UK watchdog seeks workers’ right to access colleagues’ pay details
The Equality and Human Rights Commission says UK workers should have a legal right to see pay information for colleagues doing similar work, if they suspect unequal treatment. It argues that greater transparency could help prevent discrimination, resolve disputes earlier and reduce the gender pay gap.
Under the proposals, workers could request details including salary, hours, bonuses, overtime, job descriptions and records of job evaluations. Employers would have to respond within a set timeframe, and the watchdog also wants them barred from asking job applicants about their salary history. The median gender pay gap for full-time workers was 6.8% in April; in finance, the mean and median gaps were 24% and 22%.
In short
- EHRC urges a legal right to request colleagues’ pay details.
- Employers could face a deadline to answer pay enquiries.
- The full-time gender pay gap stood at 6.8% in April.
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The case for
A legal right to see comparable pay information could help workers identify unequal treatment that is otherwise hard to prove, and give employers a chance to address problems before disputes escalate. Supporters argue that transparency, alongside a ban on salary-history questions that can carry past inequalities into new jobs, could advance fair pay and narrow the gender pay gap.
The case against
Employers and critics may argue that requiring disclosure of colleagues’ pay, hours and bonuses risks exposing sensitive personal information and creating mistrust or workplace conflict. They may also question whether broad requests and fixed response deadlines would impose disproportionate administrative costs, while preferring targeted investigations and existing legal routes to address suspected discrimination.
Explained simply
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is the UK’s independent body for promoting and enforcing equality and human rights law. Pay discrimination can be difficult to identify when workers do not know how their pay compares with colleagues doing similar work.
The gender pay gap measures the difference between men’s and women’s pay across a workforce; it does not by itself show whether people doing the same work are paid differently. Pay transparency rules could give workers more information to raise concerns, while limits on asking applicants about past salaries could affect how employers set starting pay.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “Give UK workers right to know colleagues’ pay to prevent disparities, says watchdog”.