Asking questions about pay

In April 2014, the government abolished the statutory equal pay questionnaire. This was a formal questionnaire procedure that enabled a woman to ask her employer for information about pay to help her decide whether to issue an equal pay claim. ETs could draw a formal adverse inference from a failure to respond or from weak or evasive answers. The government has refused to reinstate the questionnaire, despite evidence that it was an effective means for women to decide whether to launch a claim.

While Acas produced guidance in its place, Asking and responding to questions of discrimination in the workplace, this has also now been withdrawn.

Section 77, EA 10 bans contract terms that prevent workers discussing their pay to establish whether there is pay discrimination. Contract terms banning discussions of pay for any other reason are lawful. Employees do not have to discuss their pay if they do not want to. A TUC survey in January 2020 showed that nearly a fifth of UK workers are banned from discussing their pay with co-workers.

For most workers, fair pay outcomes are much more likely to be achieved where a collective approach is taken through a trade union, with or without the use of strategic litigation. Where a union is recognised, the employer owes important statutory duties to disclose transparent information about pay for the purposes of collective bargaining (see Chapter 5).