The HR Professional’s Guide to Equal Pay

One of the most essential aspects of employment law that HR professionals need to understand is the UK’s approach to equal pay. 

In the UK, the law makes it illegal for an employer to not pay male and female employees the same for performing the same roles and same duties. But what does that mean in practice?

In this guide, we’ll explore what an HR professional needs to know about equal pay, equal pay legislation and how to ensure that your organisation complies with its responsibilities.

What is equal pay?

Equal pay refers to the legal responsibility that an employer has to pay male and female employees the same amount for work which is classed as equal. Under the terms of the Equality Act 2010, men and women must be paid equally if they’re working in the same role and carrying out the same level, type and quality of work. 

According to ACAS (a great resource to check out when it comes to finding out more about equal pay and legislation), ‘equal work’ is defined as responsibilities, duties and actions that are ‘the same, similar, equivalent or of equal value’.

In other words, if a man and a woman both have the same role, perform the same duties to the same expected standard and have the same working patterns, then they legally must be paid the same amount of money. If you didn’t, you would be breaking the law.

Who does equal pay apply to?

Equal pay applies comprehensively to most groups of people in the workplace. For instance, equal pay legislation applies to:

• Employees
• Workers
• Apprentices and agency workers
• People on full-time, part-time or temporary contracts
• Self-employed people

The Equality Act 2010 and Equal Pay

As we mentioned above, the Equality Act 2010 is the basis for most of the equal pay law in the UK. It’s a broad piece of legislation that is designed to stop discrimination, harassment and victimisation from occurring in the workplace and in wider society.

You might have wondered why the Equality Act 2010 is the legislation responsible for enforcing equal pay. The answer is pretty simple: the Equality Act 2010 is designed to combat different types of discrimination in the workplace, and a failure to ensure equal pay between a male and female employee could be considered as gender-based discrimination.

The Equality Act 2010 lists gender as a protected characteristic. Protected characteristics are traits that make it illegal to treat someone ‘less favourably’ on the basis of having them (also known as ‘discriminating’ against someone). In this case, the discrimination is based on whether the person being treated less favourably than another is being treated as such because of their gender.

Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Despite it appearing similar at first glance, equal pay is not the same as the gender pay gap.  

Both are similar in the fact that they deal with differences in pay as a result of gender. As we’ve explored, equal pay is the legal requirement for men and women performing ‘equal work’ to be paid the same. The gender pay gap differs in that it’s a measure of the average difference in pay between males in a workplace and between females. 

As Dean Royles explores in this article for HR Magazine, surprisingly, you can have equal pay in a workplace and still have a large gender pay gap.

The two concepts are similar in that they are closely bound up in the law. It’s a legal requirement to ensure that you have equal pay in your workplace, and it’s a legal requirement for organisations with over 250 employees.

Safeguarding Equal Pay in Your Workplace

1. Consult the Equal Pay Statutory Code of Practice.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has produced a Statutory Code on Equal Pay that’s an invaluable resource for HR professionals to consult to find out more about what equal pay legislation means for your organisation. This piece of guidance is designed to help employers understand their responsibilities and to demonstrate best practice.

2. Be aware of widely used approaches to pay that can fall foul of the law

In point 166 of the code, the EHRC lays out some typical types of employer behaviour around pay that could be potentially risky when it comes to equal pay. Whilst there might not be any intention to actually discriminate against employers based on their gender, in some circumstances, practices like the following could end up doing so.

The code suggests that this could happen as a result of particular systems not being kept updated, for instance. EHRC suggests that practices like the following can end up causing problems when it comes to ensuring equal pay:

• Not being transparent about pay and pay grading
• Performance-related pay if it isn’t based on objective rules and it isn’t structured clearly. 
• Different terms and conditions for different employees when it comes to things like overtime, attendance allowances and unsocial hour rates etc.
• Different pay grading systems in use at the same time
• Pay grading scales that are very wide
• Overlapping pay ranges
• Managers having responsibility over deciding starting salaries
• Pay systems not based on job evaluation 
• Out-of-date job evaluation processes
• Pay protection

Pay close attention to whether the pay processes in your organisations have any of these traits. If they do, make a list of them and come up with an action plan for aligning them to best practice instead.  

3. Complete an Equal Pay Audit.

The EHRC argues that carrying out an equal pay audit can help to ensure that your pay processes and policies are in line with the law. This can be a good option if you’ve already identified (or have a hunch) that some of your organisation’s pay policies fall into the category we’ve outlined above.

Generally, a best practice audit will explore the nature of pay in your workplace. It will compare the respective pay of men and women when they’re doing equal work. It will also identify, explain and provide solutions for eliminating any pay differences between genders at your workplace.

Point 171 of the Code is incredibly helpful. It outlines the Commission’s recommended five-step plan when it comes to running an equal pay audit. This can give you a template which you can use to build your overall audit on. The EHRC recommends approaching it like this:

1. Define the scope and information you want to find out.
2. Identify where male and female employees are doing work that could be classed as ‘equal’.
3. Gather and compare pay data, finding any pay inequalities between ‘equal work’ roles.
4. Find the cause of these pay inequalities.
5. Create a plan for how to solve any pay inequalities found.

Try using this process to carry out your own equal pay audit and to explore the situation of equal pay in your own organisation. Doing so could potentially help reduce the risk of your employer breaking the law.

Pay Equity is Still a Work in Progress

Although it’s illegal in the UK to pay men and women differently for the same job under the Equal Pay Act, pay equity still isn't a reality yet. It's important to remember that pay disparity doesn’t come from women being deliberately underpaid; it comes from small systematic barriers that accumulate over time.

For example, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum, women make up 41.2% of the global workforce but only occupy 28.8% of leadership positions.

The reality is that women are still under-represented in senior, high-paying positions and therefore earn less than men on average. This creates a cycle: because women are often under-represented in leadership positions, many women feel less confident negotiating salary or advocating for higher pay, especially in male-dominated industries like tech and engineering.

So yes, while there's legislation that explicitly says that women and men can't be paid differently for the same job, that doesn't mean that pay equity is an issue of the past.

Enhance Your Skills Through Training

Equal pay legislation can be pretty complex. If you’re a HR professional approaching it for the first time, it’s normal to feel a bit overwhelmed by the jargon. Don’t panic though. By doing your research and by investing in dedicated training, like studying a course, a qualification or a workshop, you’ll be able to enhance your knowledge and get to grips with the issue.

Develop your HR career with a professional online qualification.