Equal Pay Act 1970 - Elements of A Claim

Elements of A Claim

For an employee to claim under this Act they must prove one of the following:

• That the work done by the claimant is the same, or broadly the same, as the other employee.
• That the work done by the claimant is of equal value (in terms of effort, skill, decision and similar demands) to that of the other employee.
• That the work done by the claimant is rated (by a job evaluation study) the same as that of the other employee.

Once the employee has established that they are employed on 'equal work' with their comparator then they are entitled to 'equal pay' unless the employer proves that the difference in pay is genuinely due to a material factor which is not the difference in gender.

This needs expanding. What could be a “material factor”.

For example: Let’s say my firm recently employed someone to do a clerical job but we fluffed the pay negotiations and agreed to pay her far too much. Let’s say I only found out about this recently but the contract has now been signed and I am unwilling to go back on it (which, in any case, might be illegal).

However we now need to employ someone else to do a very similar job. We can fill the vacancy to a suitable standard by offering about 40% less pay than we offered to the first person.

Is this legal?

Does the gender/race/religion of the person who takes the new job change the legal status?