The UK government opened a 15-week consultation on July 14 that would force employers to publish salary information in job adverts, part of what officials are calling the first comprehensive rework of the country’s equal pay framework since the Equal Pay Act became law 50 years ago.
The consultation, running until 5pm on October 27, proposes that employers publish pay information in job adverts, or, where no advert exists, provide it to candidates in writing before the interview. It also proposes a new Equal Pay Regulation and Enforcement Unit with strengthened powers, a faster and cheaper process for pay discrimination claims, and, in a later phase, broadened protections against pay discrimination on the basis of race, disability, and sex, plus new obligations covering outsourced workers.
“The Equal Pay Act was a huge achievement,” said Seema Malhotra MP, the Minister for Equalities. “But 50 years on, it is clear that this landmark legislation needs reform to ensure it works for everyone.” Employment Rights Minister Kate Dearden framed the economic case directly: “Equal work must be fairly rewarded because we know paying a fair wage leads to better living standards, which in turn leads to increased productivity.”
For US-based HR teams with UK operations, the signal to watch is not the consultation itself but its direction of travel. Pay transparency mandates have moved from a handful of US states to the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive to, now, a UK government actively testing whether to require salary ranges in every job ad rather than leaving it to employer discretion. Multinational HR and comp teams should treat job-ad pay disclosure as a “when,” not an “if,” and start auditing whether current pay-banding practices, similar to the discrimination and return-to-work gaps our earlier reporting on UK parental leave found, would survive public disclosure today.
Source: GOV.UK
