Equal pay remedies

Up to six years of back pay plus interest can be recovered (section 132, EA 10). In practice, it can take more than four years for equal pay claims to be decided, and since any award dates from the date of issue of the claim, back pay awards can sometimes cover as much as 10 years.

Unlike a claim for sex discrimination, tribunals cannot award compensation for injury to feelings in an equal pay claim.

In some limited circumstances, tribunals can also order the employer to conduct an equal pay audit and to publish the results on its website. An equal pay audit is an audit “to identify action to be taken to avoid equal pay breaches occurring or continuing”. A tribunal can only order an audit if the woman has already won her equal pay claim, rendering this remedy meaningless for most claimants. The penalty for non-compliance is a fine of up to £5,000, payable to the Treasury (Equality Act 2010 (Equal Pay Audits) Regulations 2014 (EPAR14).

The EHRC has prepared an equal pay audit toolkit, available from their website.