ABSTRACT
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)’s Equal Pay Taskforce, which reported in February 2001, found that there had been insufficient coordinated and concerted commitment from employers, trade unions and the government to closing the gender pay gap. One of their recommendations was that the Equal Pay Act be amended to require employers to carry out regular pay reviews to check for gender inequalities in pay systems. Hepple et al. (2000: 3) also suggest that one way to overcome weaknesses in the present law and procedures is the introduction of pay equality plans that place a positive duty on employers to provide pay equity – compulsory pay audits, and remedying any gaps through negotiation with worker representatives. The government chose not to accept the Equal Pay Taskforce’s recommendation for compulsory pay audits, but instead decided to encourage employers, via the recommendations arising from the independent review of women’s employment and pay carried out for the government by Denise Kingsmill and the Chancellor’s 2002 budget, to undertake voluntary pay reviews. Employers have actually had this opportunity since the 1997 EOC Code of Practice, which recommends pay reviews, but have chosen not to take up this invitation to any great extent. EOC research shows that only one in five larger organizations have made use of this code (Morrell et al., 2001: 37), and most firms confidently stated that there was no gender pay gap in their organization without having ever carried out a review (Equal Pay Taskforce, 2001: 10).
