THE white paper produced by the Equalities Minister Harriett Harman last week paved the way for legislation that will require all public bodies to reveal what they are doing to close the gender pay gap.
The white paper also aims to ban “gagging clauses� that are used by one in four employers to stop staff comparing wages.
Disclosure would allow those who are unlawfully underpaid - usually women - to challenge the employer at an employment tribunal.
This opens up, according to the Ms Harman “a new era of openness� allowing women to see how much extra money their male counterparts are getting paid.
The aim of the legislation is to reduce the gender pay gap which currently stands nationally at 12.6%.
This Equality Bill will only require public and not private sector companies to engage in pay audits.
Although the Bill does not legally require private sector business to engage in pay audits, it does say that private sector companies supplying the public sector have to provide details of any pay differences among their staff in order to retain the work.
However, this still means that 70% of companies will not be affected by the proposal. They will merely be required to become more open about their equality policies.
This is a landmark piece of legislation which, if implemented fully, will help millions of people across the UK, however what about the millions who are not covered by the legislation.
The Government needs to address the discrepancy between rules on pay for the public and private sector.
Without compulsory pay audits for the private sector these proposals will only represent a victory for public sector employees and not the 20m people who work within the private sector.
The majority of part time female employment is within small private businesses and it will require a whole change in their outlook before these female employees can benefit.
Ms Harman stated: “A part-time woman still earns 40% less per hour than a man working full-time.� And she asked: “Are women 40% less intelligent? 40% less committed?�
Well, using the same logic applied by this statement, are those working within the private sector less intelligent or less committed than those working in the public sector and if not should they not benefit from the same equality legislation?
Paul is a partner at Quinn Barrow specialising in employment law.