Fawcett research published today shows a 50% gender pay gap. The EHRC Financial Services Inquiry found it to be 60% across the sector and in one sample it was 80% for performance-related pay.  Most women will never know if they are paid less than their male peers because their employer will not reveal what others are paid.

Employers will go to great lengths to keep pay and bonuses secret, arguing that requests for information are ‘fishing expeditions’ and oppressive, that  it is in breach of the employees’ rights to privacy,  that the work is different when it is clearly not. 

Sadly, it is often only through litigation that the true gap is revealed. Leigh Day & Co solicitors specialise in equal pay claims, in the private and public sector, and particularly in relation to bonuses in the Square Mile.  There are ways of  forcing employers to reveal pay information, for example using questionnaires under the discrimination legislation and seeking tribunal orders. 

We are also working with the EHRC on the final stage of their Financial Services Inquiry.