Gender pay gap in small company

[LoisLanyard]

I am a senior leader in a small company (as in officially classed as an SME). I recently found out that I am paid significantly (20-30%) less than my male counterparts. And that two of my female counterparts are also paid less than the male equivalents. In fact we are all paid around the same salary of the highest paid men in the grade below. I was sent this information by the HR manager, with all the salaries. Does anyone know whether I have any legal recourse over this? I won’t go nuclear to start with but it would be good to know whether or not there was something I can have in my back pocket if I really needed to.

The fact that all the women are paid less than the men suggests that this is unlawful sex discrimination. If you make a claim, your employer will have to show that there is some other reason the men are being paid more, e.g. they are better qualified or the market rate for their roles is higher. If they cannot, your claim will succeed. However, as this is an SME, taking them to tribunal over this may sour your working relationship to such an extent that you will have to move elsewhere.

If you’re not already in a union you should perhaps join one and get their advice?
It seems unusual for HR to share salary info - is that something you’d expect in your job role? I’m wondering if they know it’s off and if you approach them you’d be pushing at an open door.
(I’m absolutely not an expert in this field, I think the PP may be so don’t take my wondering there as advice!)

Thanks for the replies. Some of the info was shared as part of my role and some to help a new part of my role. So I have all the info legitimately, although I don’t think that matters. I accept that this may sour the working relationship but in theory and legally it shouldn’t - but I was thinking of leaving anyway. I view this as helping a company to become legally compliant and reduce liabilities in the future so they should be grateful (ha ha)

You can take an equal pay claim against them. You would need to cite a male comparator and they would have to justify the pay difference. You should do this informally first and ask first their reasoning. If you clubbed together with the other women as an informal group action they would need to look at it. Only employers with more than 250 employees have to publish their gender pay gap and differences are usually due to having more men in senior positions rather than individual pay differences.

@LoisLanyard It is important to know Gender Pay Gap and Equal Pay are two different things and use different statistical methodologies. Do not try to use a Gender Pay Gap analysis to argue for Equal Pay.

Job Evaluation is Step 1, because Equal Pay is about jobs of equal weight. Does your organisation have a job evaluation scheme? What you want is an analytical scheme that evaluates and gives a score based on a job description. Note: it is the job description that is evaluated not the person. This enables you to compare very different jobs and give them a grade/level.

Step 2 is an Equal Pay Audit. This compares FTE salaries by job grade/level.

These two things establish if there is an Equal Pay problem. Once you have identified the issue you can then develop a plan to solve it. Often you do this by revising your pay policy for starters to create a long term foundation. For existing staff you use the annual pay awards process to target more money towards roles/people who are being paid less. It can take a few years to address the differences.

In your position I would check the pay policy and have a quiet conversation with the HR/Pay Lead. Point out you understand GDPR and that you only saw the data as a legitimate part of your job. You have spotted there might be an equal pay issue across the organisation and wanted to alert them to the business risk. Ask them when was the last time they did an equal pay audit and suggest they may want to do one fairly soon.

If you just want your pay adjusted then follow the ACAS question and answer process https://www.acas.org.uk/equal-pay/advice-for-employees/asking-your-employer-questions-about-equal-pay-and-terms-and-conditions