Comment on the forthcoming Equalities Bill

Commenting on todayís announcement about the content of the forthcoming Equalities Bill, Stephen Bevan, managing director of The Work Foundation, said:

ëEroding the pay gap in hourly wages between men and women has been hard work, and weíve only been partly successful because it still stands at 13 per cent for full timers overall. Harriet Harman is right to describe discrimination in pay systems as ëentrenchedí and further action is long overdue.

ëWe would also like to see new pay laws also apply to bonus arrangements which rarely get scrutinised properly because they are often based on subjective judgements and the rules governing bonus pay-outs are frequently kept deliberately opaque.

ëWe are not calling for everyoneís pay to be published, but we strongly support the publication of pay structures and the conduct of mandatory ëequal pay auditsí so that differences between the pay of men and women ñ especially when they are performing the same jobs at the same level ñ become clearer. We also advocate the inclusion of bonus payments in these audits because we have anecdotal evidence that some companies are using bonuses to reward men at a higher rate than women.

ëThe motives are sound and the need to transform the status quo acute: after all, white men have been the preferred group for generations. However, the moves towards positive discrimination contained in these plans ñ modest as they are ñ must not erode the principle of merit that should apply in all recruitment and promotion decisions. Ultimately, it does not help the candidates to have to overcome charges of tokenism that will follow, and employers will find it very difficult in practice to apply the presumption in favour of certain groups in real-life situations.í