I've just found out for the past 18 months I'm being paid less than my colleagues for the same job

[Mindfullness]

However, work have only just discovered the mistake and are saying they can only amend my wages now but not back date. Is this legal? Thanks

If they have underpaid you, they can make arrangements to pay you what they owe you. There will be some tax implications though.

Had they overpaid you I’m sure they’d find a way to claw it back. It works both ways.

Good luck.

From the Unison website "Claiming for equal pay rights generally allows you to claim up to a maximum of six years of lost earnings (five years in Scotland)."

What salary did you agree?

Thanks for all the links and advice. It's just over £1 an hour which is a lot when I work 40 hours a week!

This happened to some one I worked with in the nhs. Every year until you get to the top of the band, you get an increment. This colleague didn’t get any increments for 7 years. They paid her all due back dated wages.

Hopefully you get it sorted OP. With it being an hourly rate, that might be a little easier to argue. I'm guessing you have the same job title and same job as a group of others and they are getting a different hourly rate. So something like "Junior Clerical officer - over 21 gets £11 per hour" and Senior Clerical officers get £12 per hour" type of thing and you've been employed as a Senior but paid as a Junior. £40 a week is a big difference - about £2k a year. It would be good to get that back even if it was then taxed. The issue is that some of that should have been paid in last tax year but i'm guessing that it shouldn't take you into a higher bracket if it's all paid this year. If you usually contribute to a pension then it might get more complicated.

Just because it might be complicated doesn't mean to say they can just not bother though.