Equal Pay Claims

If you think you have an equal pay claim, it’s worth getting legal advice about your options from the start.

As a guide, you would normally go through the following steps:

1. Speak to your employer
   You're entitled to ask your employer for information about your colleague’s pay and the reason for any differences. By speaking with your employer you may be able to resolve your dispute informally, without needing to make an equal pay claim.
2. Raise a grievance with your employer
   If you don’t reach a resolution informally with your employer, you may wish to consider raising a grievance. To do so you’ll need to follow your employer’s grievance process. Raising a grievance can act as a middle ground between an informal conversation with your employer and making a legal claim. By doing so, it gives you and your employer the opportunity to investigate and potentially resolve your dispute before taking more expensive legal action.
3. Make an equal pay and/or discrimination claim
   If you can’t resolve your pay dispute with your employer, then you may be able to make an equal pay claim. Depending on the circumstances of your case, you may be able to make a discrimination claim too.

Before any claim can be made through the employment tribunal, you must engage in a process known as ACAS Early Conciliation.

This process aims to resolve your dispute without the need to go to a tribunal at all. If you don’t go through ACAS Early Conciliation, the employment tribunal won’t be able to consider your claim.

The time limits for making a claim at an employment tribunal vary depending on your employment situation and the type of claim you’re making. For equal pay claims:

• If you’re no longer in employment, you’ll need to make a claim within 6 months of your employment ending
• If you’re still in employment, there’s no time limit (there are some limited exceptions however, including if you’ve changed roles during the period of back pay you’re claiming).

For a discrimination claim: This should be brought to the employment tribunal within three months of the discrimination taking place, unless there is a continuing act of discrimination.

As this can be a complex area of the law, we recommend speaking with one of our equal pay solicitors as soon as possible. Your lawyer will be able to advise on time limits for claiming (and if any relevant exceptions to the time limits above apply to your case).

If your equal pay claim is successful, you are entitled to have your pay increased to an equal level. 

Usually, an Employment Tribunal also awards back pay or compensation for up to a maximum of six years. This is typically made up of the difference between the equal pay you should have been paid and what you actually received. The Employment Tribunal can also award interest on any compensation and can order your employer to carry out an equal pay audit. 

If you have made a discrimination claim alongside your equal pay claim, there is no limit on the compensation you might receive.