Equal Pay

Fifty years of the Equal Pay Act – is it enough?

Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the UCL Institute of Education indicates that, during lockdown, for every one hour of uninterrupted paid work done by a mother, men have done three. Mothers were also 23% more likely than fathers to have temporarily or permanently lost their jobs during the crisis, 47% were more likely to have permanently lost their job or have had to quit and 14% were more likely to have been furloughed.

By Lisa Watson

New Equality Bill…is this the next DSAR?

A new Equal Pay bill has been put before parliament. Supported by the equality group the Fawcett Society, it would give employees the ability to make a "right to know" request obtain information related to pay of a comparator. The information which could be requested would potentially include salary, benefit, bonus, overtime, allowances in respect of shift working and standby time, bank holidays and time off in lieu, attendance pay and performance related pay. There is also proposed to be a less specific catch all of "any other terms related to equal pay". If an employee was requesting information about something which was not a contractual term (entered into between the employer and the comparator) the provisions propose that the employer would make a statement to that effect.

By Michelle Lamb