The need for a comparator

Except in the case of pregnancy and maternity discrimination (see page 26 and below), direct discrimination needs a “comparator”. In other words, there must be evidence of less favourable treatment when compared with someone else without the protected characteristic. That comparator need not be a real person. They can (and usually will) be a hypothetical person. However, there must be no significant difference between the comparator’s situation and that of the person claiming to have suffered the discrimination, apart from the protected characteristic.