The document discusses equal pay and pay discrimination between men and women. It provides background on legislation aimed at achieving equal pay, including the 1970 Equal Pay Act. It then examines factors that contribute to the gender pay gap such as differences in qualifications and experience, part-time work, occupational and workplace segregation. The rest of the document outlines different types of grade and pay structures organizations use to classify jobs and determine pay rates.

1. Equal pay for work of equal
value

2. WHY
DISCRIMINATION
TAKES PLACE????

3. As Robert Elliott (1) has
stated: ‘Discrimination
arises when equals are
treated unequally.’

4. Equal Pay Act in 1970, collective
agreements tended to have only
one rate of pay for women
workers, with no differentiation
between grades of work or levels
of skill.

5. The incidence of discrimination
Discrimination in the determination of
the relative rates of pay for men and
women may not be so blatant now as it
was before 1975, when the 1970 Equal
Pay Act came into force, but there is still
a significant gap nationally between the
earnings of men and women.

6. Causes of the gender pay gap
The 2001 research conducted by the National Institute of
Economic and Social Research (NIESR) into the causes of the
gender pay gap identified the following five key factors:
Human capital differences
Part-time working
Travel patterns
Occupational segregation
Workplace segregation

7. Human capital differences
ie differences in educational levels and work
experience. Historical differences in the levels of
qualifications held by men and women have
contributed to the pay gap. Women are still
more likely than men to have breaks from paid
work to care for children and other dependants.
These breaks impact on women’s level of work
experience, which in turn impacts on their pay
rates.

8. Part-time working
the pay gap between women’s part-time hourly
earnings and men’s full-time hourly earnings is
particularly large and, because so many women
work part time, this is a major contributor to the
gender pay gap. Some of this gap is due to part-
time workers having lower levels of
qualifications and less work experience.
However, it is also due to part-time work being
concentrated in less well-paid occupations.

9. Travel patterns
on average women spend less time commuting than men.
This may be because of time constraints due to balancing
work and caring responsibilities.
This can impact on women’s work in two ways: a smaller
selection of jobs to choose from and/or lots of women
wanting work in the same location (ie near to or where
they live), which leads to lower wages for these jobs.

10. Occupational segregation
women’s work is highly concentrated
in certain occupations (60 per cent of
working women work in just 10
occupations). And these occupations
that are female-dominated are often
the lowest-paid

11. Workplace segregation
at the level of individual workplaces, high
concentrations of female employees are
associated with relatively low rates of
pay. And higher levels of part-time
working are associated with lower rates
of pay, even after other factors have been
taken into account.

12. Other factors that affect the gender pay gap include: job
grading practices, appraisal systems, reward systems,
retention measures and pay determination practices.
In the latter case, pay levels set entirely on the basis of
external comparisons (market rates) can lead to unequal pay
for women within the organization because external rates
may simply reflect the pay inequities already existing in the
labour market.

13. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The equal-pay-for-work-of-equal-
value legal framework is based
on the provisions of European
legislation, the 1970 Equal Pay
Act as amended by the Equal Pay
(Amendment) Regulations 1983

14. Article 119 of the EC founding Treaty of Rome of 1957 (now subsumed and
expanded as Article 142 of the Treaty of Maastricht) stated that men and
women should receive equal pay for equal work – in order to achieve what is
often described as a ‘level playing field’ in terms of wages. Article 119 was
extended by the Equal Pay Directive of 1975, which stated that:
men and women should receive equal pay for work of equal
value;
job classification systems (which is Euro-English for any formal
grading system and thus encompasses job evaluation schemes)
should be fair and nondiscriminatory; EC member states should
take steps to implement the equal pay principle.
European legislation

15. THE EOC CODE OF PRACTICE ON EQUAL PAY
The Code of Practice on Equal Pay as reissued by the Equal
Opportunities Commission in December 2003 (5) describes:
the equal pay legislation;
the scope of the Equal Pay Act;
how individuals can raise equal pay matters with their employers, request
information and bring an equal pay claim;
how to conduct equal pay reviews.

16. EQUAL PAY CLAIMS
Claims for equal pay, which may be supported by a completed equal pay
questionnaire, can be made to an employment tribunal on any of the
following three grounds:
1. where the work is like work, meaning the same or very similar work;
2. where the work is work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation
‘study’;
3. where the work is of equal value ‘in terms of the demands made on a
worker under various headings, for instance, effort, skill, decision’.

17. Role analysis
Roles and jobs
The terms ‘role’ and ‘job’ are often used
interchangeably but they can be distinguished from
one another.
A role is the part played by people in carrying out their
work. It refers to the competencies they require to do
the work, as well as the outcomes produced by using
those competencies. It is set out in a role profile.
A job consists of a group of finite tasks to be
performed, responsibilities to be exercised and duties
to be carried out as set out in a job description.

18. Grade and pay
structures

19. Types of grade and pay
structures
Grade and pay structures
provide a logically designed
framework within which an
organization’s pay policies
can be implemented.

20. They enable the organization to
determine where jobs should be placed
in a hierarchy, define pay levels and the
scope for pay progression and provide
the basis upon which relativities can be
managed, equal pay achieved and the
processes of monitoring and controlling
the implementation of pay practices
take place.

21. GRADE STRUCTURES
A grade structure consists of a
sequence or hierarchy of grades,
bands or levels into which
groups of jobs that are broadly
comparable in size are placed

22. The main types of graded structures
Narrow-graded structures
Broad-graded structures
Broad-banded structures
Career family structures
Job family structures,
Combined structures
Pay spines,

23. Narrow-graded structures
Narrow-graded structures,
which consist of a sequence of
narrow grades (generally 10
or more). They are sometimes
called multi-graded structures.

24. Broad-graded structures
Broad-graded
structures, which have
fewer grades
(generally six to nine).

25. Broad-banded structures
Broad-banded structures, which consist of a
limited number of grades or bands (often
four to five). Structures with six or seven
grades are often described as broadbanded
even when their characteristics are typical of
broad grades.

26. Career family structures
Career family structures, which consist of a number of families (groups of
jobs with similar characteristics) each divided typically into six to eight
levels. The levels are described in terms of key responsibilities and
knowledge, skill and competence requirements and therefore define
career progression routes within and between career families.
There is a common grade and pay structure across all the career families.

27. Job family structures
Job family structures, which are similar to
career families except that pay levels in each
family may differ to reflect market rate
considerations (this is sometimes referred
to as market grouping). The structure is
therefore more concerned with market rate
relativities than mapping careers. The
number of levels in families may also vary.

28. Combined structures
Combined structures, in
which broad bands are
superimposed on career/job
families or broad bands are
divided into families.

29. Pay spines
Pay spines, consisting of a
series of incremental ‘pay
points’ extending from the
lowest- to the highest-paid
jobs covered by the structure.