EHRC proposes giving workers the right to find out colleagues’ salaries — The Guardian

The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has proposed giving workers a legal right to obtain information about the salaries of colleagues performing similar work. According to the body, this would help prevent pay discrimination, particularly against women, The Guardian reports.

What information is proposed for disclosure

The EHRC submitted its recommendations in response to government proposals to review equal pay legislation. The commission believes workers should be granted the right to transparency if they suspect that other employees receive more for comparable work.

Workers are proposed to be allowed to request information on a colleague’s annual salary and working hours, as well as bonuses, overtime pay and job descriptions. They could also request information on job evaluations: job grades, salary benchmarks, internal assessments and final records of such assessments.

Separately, the EHRC proposes allowing requests for the ranking of workers in a similar team by basic annual pay and hours worked. If the data provided are considered inaccurate or incomplete, the worker should be able to request additional information.

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Employers’ responses and salary history

British ministers are considering requiring employers to respond to workers’ questionnaires about colleagues’ pay. Such a mechanism existed previously but was abolished in 2014 as part of a policy aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on businesses.

The EHRC stressed that employers should be required to respond within a set deadline. Without this, the commission estimates, companies may delay responses, respond evasively or fail to respond at all.

The commission also called for employers to be banned from asking job applicants about their current salary. According to the Office for National Statistics, as of April, women working full time in the UK earned 6.8% less than men on average. The EHRC believes that pay transparency and abandoning requests for salary history can reduce the gender pay gap and discrimination against women.