Equal Pay Audits - What to Look Out For

Equal pay audits may be necessary to establish the extent of underlying equality issues. We asked Stephen Holst of McCann FitzGerald to examine the key points that employers should know.

The majority of employers believe that they provide equal pay for equal work, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, religious belief or other grounds. However, an equal pay audit may reveal potential claims of direct and indirect discrimination.

An equal pay audit involves considering the pay of protected groups, for example men/women or disabled/non-disabled, who are doing the same work. Secondly, an audit will investigate the causes of any pay gaps by reference to the “nine grounds” of discrimination, as