Britain may require companies to publish salaries in equal pay drive

LONDON – The British government is exploring measures to force companies to publish salary details for all job adverts in Britain as part of a legal push to eradicate pay disparity.

Ministers are pushing ahead with reforms to equal pay regulations and have launched a consultation into planned improvements to the tribunal system to tighten rules for employers and give staff greater support.

Pay transparency rules, which for example mandate that firms publish salary and conditions in job adverts, are proven to be effective in preventing pay discrimination, the government has said, and could become legally required.

Equality laws in Britain state that men and women must be paid equally for doing the same work.

Anyone who believes they have been discriminated against due to their sex has the right to take their claim to an employment tribunal.

The Labour government said this system has become too complicated, for both staff and employers, and the thousands of cases taken to tribunal each year has delayed resolution of the claims.

Ministers are committed to wider reform of the equal pay framework to run alongside measures to strengthen workers’ rights, including a longer term goal of broadening laws to apply to race and disability as well as gender.

To simplify and speed up the tribunal system and dispute resolution, ministers plan to set up a new equal pay regulation and enforcement unit, with the input of trade unions, which could be given stronger powers to uphold the law.

Employers will also be prevented from using outsourced services as a way to avoid meeting equal pay criteria under the longer term proposals.

Ministers have asked for input from businesses, trade unions and members of the public as part of a 15-week consultation which launched on July 14.

Any changes agreed to will be implemented over an extended period to ensure employers and the tribunal system have time to prepare, the government said. BLOOMBERG