Equal pay

The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970 and it made it illegal to treat men and women differently based on their gender.

Broadly speaking, male and female employees must be treated equally or equivalently for equal work.

What are my options if I think my employer is paying me unfairly?

If you think you are being underpaid or treated unfairly in comparison to others, and you think this is simply because of your gender, talk to Tees. Our specialist employment law team will tell you if you have a case for discrimination, and help you assert your rights at work. If you feel you are being unfairly treated differently for a reason other than your gender, you may still have a claim under other legislation. Our expeerts can advise you on your rights and options that might be available to you.

If you feel unfairly treated at work, you have options. These include:

• Raise a grievance with your employer informally: if you think you are not being treated equally, compared to your colleagues, you can try to resolve it informally with your employer by asking them to explain the situation. There might be a reason for the difference – for example, if one employee has more experience or professional qualifications this could result in a higher annual salary.
• Make a formal complaint against your employer: if you can’t reach a satisfactory answer informally, you have the option to go through your employer’s formal grievance procedure. If this fails, you can make a complaint to the employment tribunal. There is a time limit on claims for equal pay – you need to make your complaint whilst still working at the job to which the claim relates, or within 6 months of leaving that employment.
• Starting your discrimination claim: our specialist employment law solicitors will guide you through every step of the process. We can help you talk to your employer about equal pay, and if needed we can represent you at an employment tribunal.

How we can help

We know that you might feel nervous about talking to a solicitor, especially about your employer.

As you’d expect, our specialist employment team are experts in all aspects of employment law. However, they’re also approachable and easy to talk to. So, we can advise you what action you can take to ensure that you’re treated fairly. If you want us to, we can talk to your employer for you and we can take legal action on your behalf if that doesn’t work.