How do you know why a male colleague is being paid much more than you?

Yes it is unlawful to ban or penalise someone discussing salaries where the purpose or that discussion is sex discrimination or suspected discrimination on the grounds of sex.

Did it become illegal to put salary confidentiality in contracts?

I think it might have.

I am in same industry now and certainly no-one would dream of mentioning pay. the only reason I found out before was a weird bunch of unlikely things. Not because under normal circs anyone would ever ever say anything.

i agree with publshing. Harriet harman had a thing where employers with more than 100 employees would have to publish banded/grouped data. Great idea, I think. If they had to do that, discrepancies would vanish PDQ, it would look so bad. And of course talented women would start to walk / do graduate elsewhere etc.

IME it's practically impossible to prove this in the private sector because the minute you bring it up you're hit with the 'salaries are confidential' thing. And I suppose to be strictly fair there is something in that. But more big companies should publish their payment averages and things like that as part of their annual reports. If the pay gap really is down to factors like more women working part time then there should be no issue with showing the figures, should there

Employers should not be paying women half as much as men, for the same role and the same performance, just because they don't ask.

It's a rubbish excuse.

Plus there have been things done which show that women who do act "like men" and ask for more, get put in an "ambitious woman" category which actually doesn't do them any favours either.

This stuff is also very industry dependent. What will work in one industry will not in another. A few years back my industry had a 40% pay gap. Not sure what it is now.

Hmm

I found out a male colleague (well in fact 3 of them) were being paid disproportionately to me considering experience, skill, performance reviews etc.

I raised it but was told that salaries were confidential and I was skating on thin ice even revealing that I knew.

Personally I think that in non sales type roles salaries should be paid on competence and skill etc not based on a certain type of bargaining / confidence when it is not even related to the job.

That is one reason why many women like working in certain parts of the pubic sector - you get paid for your job and someone shitter than you can't end up being paid twice as much just because they are a male with a sense of entitlement.

Have you tried negotiating a pay rise for yourself in line with their pay?

A couple of years ago I was moaning to DH that a junior colleague was about to be paid the same as me because he negotiated using experience I also had, but didn't think was relevant. DH told me to go and negotiate too. I did and surprisingly got a payrise fairly easily by outlining the extra work and commitment I'd shown over the previous three years above and beyond my job spec.

DH said that he thinks too few women put themselves forward for higher pay, compared with men. Not sure how true that is, but I certainly wouldn't have got the raise without approaching the boss. Also, 'bigging myself up' doesn't come naturally to me and I hate to appear that I'm boasting. Female friends have said similar.

So, I'm not sure how much is blatant sexism in the workplace and how much is down to erosion of women's self esteem that we should be grateful for any job/pay and not value ourselves/our skills enough to negotiate.

It is a unique quirk of law that means it is your employer's job to prove they are not discriminating if they pay someone of one sex more than other.

You could ask your employer to justify the difference but do consider fully the implications of doing so.