If you suspect you are being paid less, what can you do about it? LGBT+ employees take home an average £6,703 less per year than their straight colleagues in the UK, a survey suggests. This is something that can be done internally by the company, where they look at all the roles that a company has and try to identify what level of responsibility they have, what level of decision making and what level of supervision they’ve got over them, and then give each role a numerical rating – which is usually sorted into bands. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. My colleague gets paid more than me for doing the same job My role as an executive assistant is identical to that of my co-worker, yet he earns £2,000 more. The gender pay gap in UK engineering has been mapped by The Engineer’s 2017 Salary Survey – women engineers earn on average £10k less per year than male colleagues.. That is, they have similar duties and hours and responsibilities, but their job may not be exactly the same as yours. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. Since the BBC pay gap was revealed, more companies will have to tell all. However, regardless of the course of action you eventually end up taking, it’s a good idea not to burn your bridges too quickly. ‘The next step is to go through your internal grievance route. Two-thirds of women say this has a detrimental impact on how they feel about their job, 33 per cent feel less motivated and 20 per cent want to resign. Under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), employers must give men and women equal treatment in the terms and conditions of their employment contract. So now that load is off your shoulders, you can focus on prepping for your meeting. The workers will each receive back pay ranging from £2,000 to £7,000. I work at a call centre and someone told me the male managers earn more than … Lloyds Banking Group has revealed that its black staff are being paid nearly 20% less than their colleagues, as it became the first major UK bank to disclose its black pay gap. In recognition of this ongoing and widespread gender pay gap the Fawcett Society established Equal Pay Day, marking the point in the year from which women are effectively working for free compared with male salaries. Lloyds paid Black staff almost 20% less than colleagues 'We recognise that specific groups face difficult and often nuanced challenges in being themselves at work' Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive officer of Lloyds Banking Group said the pay gap report is a good start but the banks still has a long way to go to. W hether you accidentally saw your co-worker’s paycheck or actually talked about salary with them, it’s incredibly uncomfortable to find out that you’ve been making less money for the exact same job as one of your colleagues.. Getting paid less than your male colleagues? Sakrouge says: “It would be better not to discuss it with colleagues generally. Are there other opportunities for you elsewhere that would enable you to play hardball, or would you rather not burn any bridges? ‘It’s generally better if things can be resolved internally. If you’re feeling unsupported and lonely, it can be tempting to confide in colleagues, but as this is a legal process (that can go on for a long period), is it wise? If you are being paid less – what should you do? Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. There’s a degree of responsibility and problem solving that you have as part of your job. Okay, let’s be honest: “Uncomfortable” is an understatement. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? Call for action after review finds male doctors paid more than female colleagues UK News Published: Dec 15, 2020 Last Updated: Dec 15, 2020 Measures have been recommended to address the issue. More than a dozen ethnic minority academics from UK universities have come forward with allegations of unlawfully being paid less than white colleagues with similar or lesser jobs. A lawyer may be able to help you, in the background, as you navigate early meetings – advising as to what the most important information is.”, “If you don’t accept the reasons you’re given, the next step is usually to file a grievance,” says Sakrouge. As the BBC pay disclosures bring the gender pay gap back into the spotlight, we ask a lawyer what employees can do if they feel they are being paid less than a colleague … ‘Then, once you’ve established that you’re already underpaid, you can further highlight the pay disparity by saying that you’ve also found out that there’s a male colleague, or there are male colleagues, who you believe are already earning the correct rate. “The circumstances will be different in every case. LGBTQ Employees Are Paid 16% Less Than Straight Colleagues, Research Suggests ... and surveyed 4,000 UK workers who identified as being straight, gay, bisexual or other. There are calls for immediate action after a review found that male doctors are still being paid more than their female colleagues. There are reasons you might be paid a different salary than your colleague in the next cubicle, and your talent might not be one of them. ‘If you’re hoping to stay in your job, then going to the law is not necessarily going to be your easiest or first course of action, because you’ve got to be realistic about maintaining a good relationship with your employer,’ she told Metro.co.uk. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. If you’re happy to hand in your notice, you may work in an industry in which the networks are so small that you fear being known as ‘the person who sued her employer’. ‘But it’s not always that easy – so there are provisions in the law to have your comparator be somebody who does like-work. In general though, it’s tricky. Emma explained: ‘You can go to an employment tribunal while you’re in the role, there’s nothing to prevent you at all, or you can do it once you’ve left the job. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Pay equity issues, and strategies to address any inequities, will vary by your employment situation. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. Any tribunal claim for discrimination, constructive dismissal and/or a breach of the equal pay provisions of the Equality Act would ordinarily only be issued after that.”, Hodge says that by this point you definitely want to have legal advice from a solicitor who specialises in employment matters. So, before the meeting comes around, collect as much evidence as you can that you’re being underpaid – the more concrete the better. Hospital cleaners are currently being paid £5.89 per hour less for a Sunday shift than their NHS counterparts and £1.01 per hour less for night and Saturday shifts, according to … Ethnicity […] Here’s what you can do, Get your need-to-know If they don’t, it will work in your favour later on, especially if the information they’ve given is found to be evasive, inaccurate or untrue, says Hodge. ‘There’s also provision for somebody to find a comparator whose work is rated as equivalent, through a job evaluation study that a lot of larger companies tend to do. Oh, and men – help your female colleagues out by telling them what you earn. If a company has done that, then you can look at any role within the rating system and say “well, my role may not be all that similar but it has been given a work-rated value that’s equivalent to my own position”. Average pay and bonuses for black employees at Lloyds Banking Group are significantly lower than what their white colleagues receive, new ethnicity pay gap data voluntarily published by the organisation has revealed. Are there steps to take to ensure you stand the best chance of having your complaint taken seriously? The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Discrimination happens when an employer treats one employee less favourably than others. The first thing to do is to look for what’s called a “comparator” – the person who you are going to point to and say, “That man does the same sort of work that I do, and he gets paid more than me”. In fact, my qualifications are higher than those of several of my colleagues doing the EXACT same job. So if more than 50% of the workforce thinks that you’re a bad employer, that’s going to make it even harder to attract talent. “But if you don’t have any, the employer will be under a duty to disclose relevant evidence during the litigation (including evidence which is unhelpful to it).”, Hodge says evidence can be gathered by asking the right questions during your initial meetings with your employer. ‘Now, it’s easy enough if there’s a man who does the same role as you, where your job description is the same and he works the same hours, has the same duties and the same responsibilities. If your employer is paying you less than a man for doing the same, or an equivalent job, then they are already breaking the law. “Depending on how long it has been going on for and the sums involved, any claim could be substantial in value and is likely to affect not only basic pay (past and future) but also benefits (including pension and associated growth) and holiday pay amongst other things.”, He also warns there are time limits for bringing claims: “There are strict time limits within which to bring claims, which will depend in particular upon whether the difference is historic only or continuing, and missing these can mean missing out and being time barred.”, “You will eventually need evidence,” says Susskind. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. OK, so after talking numbers, you found out that unfortunately, you are being paid less than your male colleagues. From the perspective of an HR professional, I think that’s a very compelling argument to build.’. In June 2018, the BBC’s former China editor Carrie Gracie won her unequal pay claim after it emerged she was being paid about £100,000 less than a male counterpart. Sakrouge says often your confidence in your position will be drawn not from a bounty of evidence but because your employer refuses to disclose what others are being paid. ‘Speaking for lots of people we work with, most HR departments would be very concerned to hear a complaint like this,’ he said. Home; ... explains what you can do if you suspect you’re being paid less than a male colleague. Claiming for equal pay rights generally allows you to claim up to a maximum of six years of lost earnings (five years in Scotland). Do you need to be prepared to walk away from your job? The report shows that, based on full-time equivalent pay, female doctors in hospitals in England are paid nearly 19 per cent less than their male counterparts, female GPs are paid 15.3 per cent less and clinical academics almost 12 per cent less. The mean pay gap and bonus gap was widest for black employees at the high street lender, at 16.7% and 52.9% respectively. Over time, I realise, through casual conversation and information that was offered to me by several colleagues, that several colleagues are being paid at … Then theoretically you can just point to him and say, “look, he’s getting paid more than me”. I keep reading about the gender pay gap but I don’t understand how people know if it’s affecting them. The survey – which is now in its third year – is based on responses from 2,743 UK engineers working across a range of different sectors. ... Women in 'girly' jobs are also paid less than … ‘At the moment it’s very hard, especially in major metropolitan areas like London, to find talented people. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Next steps for women being paid less than their male colleagues. Any tribunal claim for discrimination, constructive dismissal and/or a breach of the equal pay provisions of the Equality Act would ordinarily only be issued after that.”. ... being paid less than a colleague in the same role? However, imagine her boss comes in one day and says “oh we’re so pleased to have you, if we had a man we’d have to pay him twice as much!” Now that becomes direct discrimination. You’ve been told that it is a disciplinary offence to talk about pay with your co-workers, but you only found out about your unequal pay because your male colleagues told you how much they were earning. £37,000 for academics from an Arab background This means that black and Arab academics at the UK's top universities earn an average 26% less than white colleagues. ABC Life / By Kellie Scott. Susskind says: “It depends what you are after. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. If they refuse to allow you to apply for jobs of the same level and you are put into a lower level than colleagues then you have grounds to raise a grievance, if they don't raise your grading then you will have to decide whether you are prepared to go on working at the lower grade, if you are not you can resign and claim constructive dismissal. But how do you bring this up with your boss or company? ‘There are tools you can use, like the salary checker tool on the TotalJobs website, and there are a lot of salary surveys out there, to see how your pay compares to others in your industry. spoke to experts on employment law to find out. So, are you being paid less than your male colleagues? And on top of this, there is the obvious obstacle that can stand in the way of so many legitimate lawsuits – legal fees. In June 2018, the BBC’s former China editor Carrie Gracie, Made in Dagenham: A 1968 strike led to equal pay for women. No matter how much you love your job, there’s nothing quite as galling as finding out that your male colleagues are earning more than you for doing the same job. Should you tell colleagues about your situation? LONDON (Reuters) - Black employees at Lloyds are paid nearly a fifth less on average than their colleagues, according to an ethnicity pay gap report published by the bank on Friday. “And, if you’re not happy with the outcome of that grievance, to file an appeal thereafter. Do you need hard evidence before proceeding? The survey – which is now in its third year – is based on responses from 2,743 UK engineers working across a range of different sectors. Women who are in the workforce are also less likely to be paid the same as their male colleagues for equivalent work … Are there steps to take to ensure you stand the best chance of having your complaint taken seriously? ‘If you leave your job, then you have six months to take action against your employer. 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