A new bill to further address equal pay and gender inequality has received its first reading at the House of Commons.

Introduced by Stella Creasy MP, the Equal Pay (Information and Claims) Bill 2019-21 was introduced to Parliament on Tuesday 20 October 2020 under the Ten-Minute Rule, which allows a backbench MP to make his or her case for a new Bill in a speech lasting up to ten minutes.

Creasy put forward that leave be given to introduce a Bill to:

• Make provision for a right for employees to obtain information relating to the pay of a comparator;
• To reform remedies and time limits relating to equal pay;
• To provide a right to equal pay where a single source can rectify unequal pay;
• To amend the statutory statement of particulars to include equal pay;
• To provide for requirements on certain employers to publish information about the differences in pay between male and female employees and between employees of different ethnic origins; and
• For connected purposes.

Said Creasy:

“Members could be forgiven for thinking that we have been here before, because women have been asking for equal pay since 1833. 188 years later, we are still waiting. Last year alone, 30,000 equal pay claims were made at Tribunal, and this year we have seen that the gender pay gap is increasing, not closing. That means that, in 2020, nine out of ten women in this country work in companies or organisations that pay them less on average than their male counterparts.”

Speaking passionately about the need for the new Bill, Creasy said:

“The evidence is clear that women ask just as often as men for a pay rise, but men are four times more likely to receive it. The research shows that the impact of the gender pay gap comes from a mixture of things, including working for less productive companies, wanting to work part time, and good old-fashioned discrimination. Even being a graduate does not help, as the pay gap begins early in many women’s careers.”

“We all miss out as a result of those inequalities,” she said, explaining that the Bank of England forecasts that ending the gender pay gap would add £600bn to the UK’s economy by 2025, and ending discrimination against those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in the workplace, as this Bill seeks to do, would add £24bn a year to GDP. Given that we are now facing an economic crisis, she commented, there has never been a better time finally to grapple with why, even in 2020, not everybody gets an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work.

“Pay discrimination is prevalent because it is hard to get pay transparency. Unless a woman knows that a man who is doing equal work to her is being paid more, she cannot know whether she is being paid equally. At ​present, getting that information all too often requires going to court because it is not available.”

This Bill has been drafted by a panel of legal and human resources experts, chaired by Daphne Romney QC. It seeks to break the culture of discrimination and the culture of secrecy that causes it. The Bill implements a right to know, to give women the right to request the pay data of their male counterparts. If they suspect that an individual or group may constitute a comparator, they would have a right to know that information so that they could make the comparison without having to go to court and make a formal request.

“The Bill is not just about equal pay,” says Creasy.

“Women of colour, for too long, have been left out of the conversation about equality in the workplace. The government said that they would act on the ethnicity pay gap, but action has not been forthcoming. For nearly 200 years, women have been asking for parity, and with the pandemic bearing down on us, we cannot afford to wait any longer for action.

“Discrimination is bad not just for those affected – it is bad for businesses and the economy as well. The measure now needs political will, so that we make sure that equal pay is not just a great fiction but a lived reality for everyone in this country.”

The Bill will undergo its second reading on 13 November 2020.