- Workers could gain the right to request colleagues’ salary details and information about bonuses, overtime and working hours
- The watchdog wants employers to respond to pay information requests within a specified timeframe
- Women in full-time work earned 6.8 per cent less than men on average in April 2026, according to official figures
Workers in the UK could gain greater access to information about their colleagues’ salaries under proposed reforms aimed at tackling pay discrimination, particularly against women.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has urged the government to introduce a legal requirement for employers to respond to staff requests for pay information when they suspect they are being paid less than colleagues doing similar work.
The recommendation forms part of the watchdog’s response to government proposals to overhaul equal pay laws. The EHRC also wants employers to be prohibited from asking job applicants about their current or previous salaries, arguing that doing so can perpetuate historic pay inequalities.
Under the proposals, employees would be able to request details about colleagues undertaking similar work, including annual basic pay, working hours, bonuses, overtime, shift premiums and performance-related payments. They could also seek information about job descriptions, pay grades and the evaluations employers use to determine salaries.
The watchdog said workers should be able to challenge information they believe is incomplete or inaccurate. Employers should also be required to respond within a specified timeframe, rather than being allowed to treat such requests as optional.
The EHRC said a mandatory system would help prevent employers from delaying responses or providing evasive answers. Greater transparency could also allow pay disputes to be resolved earlier, reducing the need for employment tribunal proceedings.
Salary history under scrutiny
The proposed changes would also address the role of salary history in recruitment.
Employers in the UK can currently ask candidates how much they earn in their existing jobs, although applicants are not obliged to disclose the information.
The EHRC argues that using previous salaries to determine a new employee’s pay can carry existing inequalities from one job to another. If a worker has historically been underpaid, basing a new offer on that salary could make it harder to close the gap.
John Kirkpatrick, the EHRC’s chief executive, told the BBC that employers should not be able to ask about salary history when setting pay. He said such practices could embed disadvantage or discrimination into future salaries.
The watchdog said employers should instead determine pay through relevant factors such as skills, experience and performance, while ensuring that salary decisions do not create discriminatory patterns.
The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women’s rights and gender equality, has also warned that salary-history questions can perpetuate historic differences linked to gender, race and disability.
The proposals come as the gender pay gap remains a concern across the UK workforce. Office for National Statistics figures show that, in April 2026, women in full-time employment earned 6.8 per cent less than men on a median basis.
The disparity is wider in some industries. In financial services, mean and median gender pay gaps have been reported at 24 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, highlighting the differences that can persist across sectors.
The gender pay gap measures the difference in average earnings between men and women across a workforce. It is distinct from unequal pay, which concerns men and women receiving different pay for equal work or work of equal value.
The EHRC believes that greater access to pay information, combined with restrictions on salary-history questions, could help employees identify potential discrimination and challenge unexplained differences.
The proposals remain recommendations to the government rather than new legal rights already in force. Their eventual impact will depend on which measures ministers adopt and how any changes are implemented.
