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

[JacqueslePeacock]

I mean, any idea how to tell (and prove!) when it's outright sexism and when it's because he has slightly different experience/qualifications from yours?

In my old job, there was an interesting little process that would happen. A woman in a role would leave. The decision would be taken to hire someone new. At which point a discussion would ensue about the exact job description, pay etc. Inevitably, the pay would then be increased because it was decided that "the job needs someone more experienced/higher level". Then they would hire a man, usually one with exactly the same experience level as the woman who had just resigned, or even less.

Coincidence? I think not. The person doing my job, a man, earns 50% more than I did.

If the pay scale is long and the men are clustered near the top, with the women clustered near the bottom, there has been some success recently in tackling this through equal pay tribunals. In the public sector.

www.prospect.org.uk/news/id/2012/00232

If you are a Union member they may be interested in fighting your case.

Good luck OP. I also work in the public sector. I got offered to take over the role of a man who had just left, but several bands (not even points, whole bands!) lower on the pay scale for the same job! The excuses were that they weren't sure of the job description, it might change, they were doing me a favour by giving me experience of a higher level of work (erm thanks, but I'd like to be paid for it!), they also said it was because I had less qualifications, experience etc until I pointed out that I had the same level of experience and slightly higher qualifications. At one point they said the man had 'additional duties' but wouldn't tell me what they were, as this was irrelevant (even though this was the whle bloody point, whether or not we were doing the same job). It turned out these were duties I was doing too. I negotiated, challenged etc and couldn't get anywhere informally, I had to raise a grievance, which I lost, and only won on appeal.

I may not even have made the grievance had I not been still pissed off about being refused the job below that one the previous year because it was 'a man's job', so they gave it to a man with no relevant experience or qualifications instead of me with lots of both. I didn't challenge it at the time because I thought I would just work harder and show them how great I'd be at the job, so that they would give it to me when it next came up. Which they did, but without the pay.

It's all sorted now, but the moral of the story is there are definitely bastards in the public sector as well. It's not as transparent and pro-equality as everyone seems to think it is.

Really interesting thread.

I'm not sure what you can do once you're in a job but as others have said I think the key time is when you change jobs. You are worth it. If you have been invited for an interview for the job they think you can do it so you probably can. Being prepared to change jobs frequently helps too. I did this a lot bc and my salary was on a par with dp's even though he is slightly older and has a better degree. Unfortunately 6 years later although i've never stopped working my career is less good and the idea of changing jobs much harder and my salary has suffered too.

Maybe the way to go about it is to at your next review ask if there are any courses or any secondments available to develop your career to reach the same pay scale as the men in the department.

BeeBaw - "men are clustered near the top, with the women clustered near the bottom".

Statistically that is impossible in a fair pay system and it was exactly that point that alerted DW to the fact that she might not be being paid fairly. To be fair, her boss (a man) and the organisatioon responded absolutely correctly and sorted the problem out immediately but it is ufortunate that not all organisations work that way.

I think that's a good point tour. Certainly when I went back to work pt, I was at a level where pt vacancies coming on to the market were rarer than hen's teeth. So I stayed with my company until I went freelance, rather than trying to change jobs.