The key facts
- The EHRC proposed making it mandatory for employers to disclose, within a set deadline, data on colleagues' base salaries, hours, bonuses and overtime
- It also proposes banning employers from asking candidates about their current salary during hiring
- At present, employers may ask such a question, but candidates are not obliged to answer, and employers are not required to respond to requests about colleagues' salaries
What the regulator proposes
The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has put forward a proposal to give workers a legal right to find out how much their colleagues earn. In the regulator's view, employers should be required to respond to employees' requests about salaries in order to reduce pay discrimination. This was reported by BBC News with reference to the EHRC's proposal to the government.
What data, and to what extent
The EHRC called on lawmakers to make it mandatory to provide, within a set deadline, information on colleagues' base salaries and hours worked, on how the pay of different employees compares, as well as data on bonuses, overtime, shift allowances and performance-related payments. The regulator believes this would help combat pay discrimination, particularly against women. The EHRC has previously also spoken out in favour of publishing salary information directly in job adverts.
Ban on the salary history question
The second part of the proposal concerns hiring: employers would be barred from asking candidates about their current salary, so that a history of discrimination is not carried over into new roles. EHRC chief John Kirkpatrick explained in a comment to the BBC that when an employer bases an offer on previous earnings, this 'can cement a history of disadvantage or discrimination into future salaries'. According to him, a competitive salary is acceptable, but it must not 'create a discriminatory template'.
Current situation and context
At present, employers in the UK are entitled to ask an applicant about their current income, but a candidate is not obliged to answer this question. Employers are also not required to disclose to employees data on their colleagues' salaries. The Fawcett Society, a public organisation campaigning for gender equality, has previously stated that the salary history question entrenches historically unfair pay differences linked to gender, race and disability: instead of assessing skills, experience and results, the employer rewards a person's 'perceived value' and their negotiation skills. The EHRC's proposals remain recommendations to the government for now — the publication does not report any decision to introduce legislative changes.
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