Great Britain: en route to legislation allowing female employees learn how much their male counterparts are earning?

With the backing from elected officials across the political spectrum, on 20 October the Equal Pay Bill commenced its progress through the House of Commons. This bill (here), which observers believe is likely to be adopted, aims to legally allow an employee know a colleague’s salary. The idea here is to give women, too often victims of salary discrimination, the possibility of knowing if they are paid as much as men in a country where the average gender pay gap still stood in 2019 at 17.3% in favour of men. It should be noted that although current legislation does allow women to ask how much another employee receives, employers are not obliged to answer, and the only solution for those who believe they are victims of discrimination is to go to court. “Unless a woman knows that a man who is doing equal work to her is being paid more she cannot know if she is being paid equally”, criticised Labor MP Stella Creasy, who introduced the bill. The Equal Pay Bill also plans to require companies with at least 100 employees to publish a gender pay gap, a requirement that currently only applies to companies with a minimum of 250 employees. The bill may also require companies with a minimum of 100 employees publish their ethnic pay gaps, whereas this is currently still on a voluntary basis.