1. Equal pay has had a quiet spell recently, but that is likely to change fast, with the

Transcription

1 Equal Pay and Transparency: mandatory gender pay gap reporting Harini Iyengar Introduction 1. Equal pay has had a quiet spell recently, but that is likely to change fast, with the introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting. The detail may seem tedious and arithmetical, however, pay transparency could prove to be a radical stimulus for both equal pay litigation and the widespread review of recruitment and promotion practices in business and industry. 2. Everybody knows that there remains a significant discrepancy between the wages which men earn and the wages that women earn for doing the same work, more than 40 years after the introduction of equal pay laws in the United Kingdom. It is fashionable now to call this phenomenon the gender pay gap. I think you would struggle in 2016 to find a client who holds a principled objection to the ideal that they should not have a gender pay gap in their workforce. Some people, who favour the legal and political theory of philosophers like John Rawls, believe that the existence of the gender pay gap is wrong as a matter of social justice and equality. Other people, who favour the legal and political theory of philosophers like Richard Posner, see the gender pay gap as an aspect of inefficiency in the operation of the labour market. The Government Equalities Office uses the language of wanting fully to capitalise on the talent and experience of women. 3. In my talk today I will start by giving you a broad overview of equal pay in the European Union and the UK, then remind you how the equality of terms provisions operate in our law, before moving on to explain the statutory provisions in section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 on pay transparency, the equal pay statutory code of 1

2 practice, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission s five-step model for equal pay audits. I will conclude by commenting on the draft regulations on mandatory gender pay gap reporting and giving you my views on some practical issues associated with equal pay auditing. Equal Pay in the European Union 4. Article 157 of the Treaty for the Functioning of the European Union provides: 1. Each Member State shall ensure that the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for equal work or work of equal value is applied. 2. For the purpose of this article, pay means the ordinary basic or minimum wage or salary and any other consideration, whether in cash or in kind, which the worker receives directly or indirectly, in respect of his employment, from his employer. Equal pay without discrimination based on sex means: (a) that pay for the same work at piece rates shall be calculated on the basis of the same unit of measurement; (b) that pay for work at time rates shall be the same for the same job. 3. The European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, and after consulting the Economic and Social Committee, shall adopt measures to ensure the application of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation, including the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. 2

3 4. With a view to ensuring full equality in practice between men and women in working life, the principle of equal treatment shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or adopting measures providing for specific advantages in order to make it easier for the underrepresented sex to pursue a vocational activity or to prevent or compensate for disadvantages in professional careers. 5. Across the European Union, women earn on average 16.2% less than men for each hour worked. In European Commission Recommendation D(2014) 1405, the expectation was that member states would start tackling the gender pay gap more seriously, by giving employees an entitlement to request pay level information about their workplace, by requiring regular reporting by employers on pay levels, and by requiring larger companies to conduct pay audits. The UK Government had to report on the steps it had taken by the end of Its voluntary scheme for employers to conduct and publish equal pay audits had had only about three takers, and had patently been totally ineffective. Similarly, I have come across no example of an employment tribunal ever using its power under the Equality Act 2010 (Equal Pay Audits) Regulations 2014 to order an employer which loses an equal pay claim to publish an equal pay audit. So, the belated implementation of mandatory gender gap reporting which we are now seeing might be regarded not as a feminist step forward by a modern Government, so much as the last resort for an administration which has consistently done the bare minimum required by European Union rules. Therefore, it is impossible to predict what effect Brexit might have on gender pay gap reporting. Equal Pay in the United Kingdom 6. Across the UK, the gender pay gap varies widely depending on the industry sector in question. The UK average gender pay gap is 19.2% and in London it is 23%. 3

4 7. Traditionally, the gender pay gap is measured by comparing hourly earnings by all employees. It has certainly decreased over the last 40 years. In 2013, the lowest gender pay gap was found amongst the youngest age groups in the workforce, it then increases to peak for workers aged years, and then falls for the older age bands. Many people but not, presumably, the Court of Appeal can see an obvious connection between maternity leave, inflexible working patterns, and the domestic division of childcare responsibilities, and the gender pay gap in the UK. There is also, of course, the role of conscious and subconscious bias in recruitment and promotion practices to consider. 8. The gender pay gap has consistently been higher for workers practising skilled trades, such as plumbing, and for managers and directors. Traditionally, the gender pay gap for professional and associate professional occupations has been lower than the national average. The current dispute over the proposed changes to junior doctors contracts and the justification of indirect sex discrimination raises questions about the long-term gender pay gap in the medical profession, and changes to Legal Aid raise similar questions about the pay gap within the legal profession, where women have always been over-represented in publicly-funded areas of law. 9. In 2013, the gender pay gap was lowest for those in the 10 th percentile of earnings ie 10% of the population earn less than those wages. This is the group for whom the gender pay gap has decreased at the fastest rate in the period For the highest earners, the gender pay gap has been much slower at improving. Research by the Fawcett Society and the TUC put the pay gap for the top 10% of earners at 54-55%, and as steadily rising. 4

5 10. In November 2014, the Government Equalities Office published a report, The gender pay gap matters, and its authors appeared concerned that there were still no signs of the bringing into force of section 78 of the Equality Act 2010, which provides for transparency on unequal pay. The current position is that section 78 will not be in force in practice until Section 147 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, a provision which is itself still not yet in force, requires pay transparency regulations to be made by 25 March The Government published draft regulations for consultation on 12 February The only question was whether any modifications should be made to the ten draft regulations and the consultation closed on 11 March The provisional timetable is that the regulations will be published in June or July 2016, and come into force in October The first equal pay audits, however, will not need to be published until April It is unfortunately necessary in the current climate to note when advising clients that what the law on equal pay says, and what rules get enforced in practice are separate questions these days. Following the introduction of employment tribunal fees on 29 July 2013, the number of equal pay claims has plummeted. It costs a claimant 1,200 to bring an equal pay claim, although some discounts would operate if it were a piece of group litigation. Comparing October to December 2012 to October to December 2013, there was an 83% fall in equal pay claims accepted by the employment tribunals. When comparing April to June 2013 to April to June 2014, that figure had risen to 84%. The latest figures, published in September 2015, show that in ,700 equal pay claims were presented, compared to just 9,621 in Although the Court of Appeal s understanding of causation might differ, I see no connection between the fall in equal pay claims and any sudden and dramatic improvement in the gender pay gap during that period of time. 5

6 12. The Supreme Court will hear the appeal in the judicial review challenging the introduction of employment tribunal fees later this year, in R (on the application of Unison) v Lord Chancellor ([2015] EWCA Civ 935, [2015] IRLR 911). Although the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court s judgment dismissing Unison s third challenge to the employment tribunal fees system, it did comment that the decline in claims was sufficiently startling to merit a review of the fees system. The Government has been promising a review of the fees system for a long time but, perhaps because of the litigation, there is no sign of the review publishing a report any time soon. The Equality of Terms Provisions 13. As you know, our equal pay laws were first introduced in the Equal Pay Act 1970, and have always been distinct from our laws on sex discrimination. A failure to pay equal pay is characterised as a breach of a contractual term which is imposed into all contracts of employment by operation of law and which says that men and women will be paid equal pay for equal work. It is a statutory interference with the usual rules which give individuals and businesses freedom to enter into whatever contracts they would like to. Nevertheless, because equal pay operates through the imposition of the equality term, it remains up to each woman whether she chooses to enforce her contractual right to equal pay or not. The same scheme was re-enacted in the Equality Act All equal pay claims require a comparison to be made between the work which a comparator of the opposite sex does. The argument that the work is equal can be based upon like work, work rated as equivalent or work of equal value under section 65 of the Equality Act Section 65 provides: 6

7 (1) For the purposes of this Chapter, A's work is equal to that of B if it is (a) like B's work, (b) rated as equivalent to B's work, or (c) of equal value to B's work. (2) A's work is like B's work if (a) A's work and B's work are the same or broadly similar, and (b) such differences as there are between their work are not of practical importance in relation to the terms of their work. (3) So on a comparison of one person's work with another's for the purposes of subsection (2), it is necessary to have regard to (a) the frequency with which differences between their work occur in practice, and (b) the nature and extent of the differences. (4) A's work is rated as equivalent to B's work if a job evaluation study (a) gives an equal value to A's job and B's job in terms of the demands made on a worker, or (b) would give an equal value to A's job and B's job in those terms were the evaluation not made on a sex-specific system. (5) A system is sex-specific if, for the purposes of one or more of the demands made on a worker, it sets values for men different from those it sets for women. (6) A's work is of equal value to B's work if it is (a) neither like B's work nor rated as equivalent to B's work, but (b) nevertheless equal to B's work in terms of the demands made on A by reference to factors such as effort, skill and decision-making. 15. Under section 65, the comparators are performing like work if it is the same or broadly similar, has differences which are not of practical importance in relation to the terms of the man s and the woman s work, and regard will be given to the frequency with which differences occur in practice, and the nature and extent of differences. 16. The comparators are performing work rated as equivalent if a job evaluation study gives an equal value to their jobs in terms of the demands made on them as workers, or if a job evaluation study not on a sex-specific system would give equal value to their jobs. A sex-specific system is one which sets different values for men and women for the purposes of the demands made on a worker. It is therefore possible for a woman to challenge the outcome of a job evaluation study which does not rate 7

8 her work as equivalent to her male comparators, if she can establish an argument that the study itself was sex-specific. 17. Claims of equal value are often put to the bottom of the list of issues in equal claims, because of their perceived complexity compared to the other two bases of claim, in terms of both the concepts and the evidence required. For the comparators work to be of equal value, it must not be like work nor work rated as equivalent, but must be equal in terms of the demands made on the worker. Relevant factors include effort, skill and decision-making. The concept of work of equal value tends to start at a very abstract level and then gradually become very concrete as the witnesses come to give evidence in hearing. 18. The legal mechanism for imposing the sex equality clause is found in section 66 of the Equality Act 2010: (1) If the terms of A's work do not (by whatever means) include a sex equality clause, they are to be treated as including one. (2) A sex equality clause is a provision that has the following effect (a) if a term of A's is less favourable to A than a corresponding term of B's is to B, A's term is modified so as not to be less favourable; (b) if A does not have a term which corresponds to a term of B's that benefits B, A's terms are modified so as to include such a term. (3) Subsection (2)(a) applies to a term of A's relating to membership of or rights under an occupational pension scheme only in so far as a sex equality rule would have effect in relation to the term. (4) In the case of work within section 65(1)(b), a reference in subsection (2) above to a term includes a reference to such terms (if any) as have not been determined by the rating of the work (as well as those that have). 19. Section 67 of the Equality Act 2010 imposes the sex equality rule into pension schemes and section 68 concerns alternations to pension schemes. 20. The main defence which one sees in equal pay claims is the material factor defence found in section 69 of the Equality Act 2010: 8

9 (1) The sex equality clause in A's terms has no effect in relation to a difference between A's terms and B's terms if the responsible person shows that the difference is because of a material factor reliance on which (a) does not involve treating A less favourably because of A's sex than the responsible person treats B, and (b) if the factor is within subsection (2), is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. (2) A factor is within this subsection if A shows that, as a result of the factor, A and persons of the same sex doing work equal to A's are put at a particular disadvantage when compared with persons of the opposite sex doing work equal to A's. (3) For the purposes of subsection (1), the long-term objective of reducing inequality between men's and women's terms of work is always to be regarded as a legitimate aim. (4) A sex equality rule has no effect in relation to a difference between A and B in the effect of a relevant matter if the trustees or managers of the scheme in question show that the difference is because of a material factor which is not the difference of sex. (5) Relevant matter has the meaning given in section 67. (6) For the purposes of this section, a factor is not material unless it is a material difference between A's case and B's. 21. Many of you will know this as the old GMF defence. It is still based on an argument that the difference in pay is based on a material factor other than sex. If the material factor is indirectly discriminatory, then it must be justified. 22. Just as in the Equal Pay Act 1970, section 70 of the Equality Act 2010 splits jurisdiction between sex discrimination and equal pay: (1) The relevant sex discrimination provision has no effect in relation to a term of A's that (a) is modified by, or included by virtue of, a sex equality clause or rule, or (b) would be so modified or included but for section 69 or Part 2 of Schedule 7. (2) Neither of the following is sex discrimination for the purposes of the relevant sex discrimination provision (a) the inclusion in A's terms of a term that is less favourable as referred to in section 66(2)(a); (b) the failure to include in A's terms a corresponding term as referred to in section 66(2)(b). (3) The relevant sex discrimination provision is, in relation to work of a description given in the first column of the table, the provision referred to in the second column so far as relating to sex. 9

10 Description of work Provision Employment Section 39(2) Appointment to a personal office Section 49(6) Appointment to a public office Section 50(6) 23. Section 71 of the Equality Act 2010 contains a new provision, however, which caters for the situation in which a woman argues that a male colleague doing a less demanding job is being paid more than her. In other words, she cannot show a comparator who is doing equal work to herself, and she is arguing that she should have been paid more than her male colleague. Under section 71, a woman can now argue this sort of equal pay claim as a sex discrimination claim: (1) This section applies in relation to a term of a person's work (a) that relates to pay, but (b) in relation to which a sex equality clause or rule has no effect. (2) The relevant sex discrimination provision (as defined by section 70) has no effect in relation to the term except in so far as treatment of the person amounts to a contravention of the provision by virtue of section 13 or 14. I have not yet come across any caselaw on section 71, but I have successfully pleaded this type of sex discrimination claim, amongst others, in an equal pay claim which settled before the hearing. 24. Sections 73 to 76 of the Equality Act 2010 contain very specific provisions on pregnancy and maternity discrimination and maternity-related pay. 25. Section 77 of the Equality Act 2010 provided a precursor to the regime of greater pay transparency which is about to start. It renders void contractual clauses which seek to gag employees from discussing their pay, stops employers from preventing employees inquiring into one another s pay, and protects employees who make such inquiries from victimisation: (1) A term of a person's work that purports to prevent or restrict the person (P) from disclosing or seeking to disclose information about the terms of P's work is 10

11 unenforceable against P in so far as P makes or seeks to make a relevant pay disclosure. (2) A term of a person's work that purports to prevent or restrict the person (P) from seeking disclosure of information from a colleague about the terms of the colleague's work is unenforceable against P in so far as P seeks a relevant pay disclosure from the colleague; and colleague includes a former colleague in relation to the work in question. (3) A disclosure is a relevant pay disclosure if made for the purpose of enabling the person who makes it, or the person to whom it is made, to find out whether or to what extent there is, in relation to the work in question, a connection between pay and having (or not having) a particular protected characteristic. (4) The following are to be treated as protected acts for the purposes of the relevant victimisation provision (a) seeking a disclosure that would be a relevant pay disclosure; (b) making or seeking to make a relevant pay disclosure; (c) receiving information disclosed in a relevant pay disclosure. (5) The relevant victimisation provision is, in relation to a description of work specified in the first column of the table, section 27 so far as it applies for the purposes of a provision mentioned in the second column. Description of work Provision by virtue of which section 27 has effect Employment Section 39(3) or (4) Appointment to a personal office Section 49(5) or (8) Appointment to a public office Section 50(5) or (9) 26. Having described the current regime, and before moving on to section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 and transparency, it is worth pausing to consider remedies and the burden of proof. The remedy for a breach of the sex equality clause is damages for breach of contract, which can be backpay for up to six years. There are different limitation periods and rules in employment tribunals and the civil courts for this type of breach of contract claim. The burden of proof will be on the employer, if it runs a material factor defence. Sex discrimination can be inferred in equal pay claims just as in claims of direct sex discrimination. Therefore, an inference of discrimination 11

12 may be drawn from the manner in which an employer does or avoids doing an equal pay audit. 27. Section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 will be brought into effect by section 147 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, which is itself not yet in force, through the making of regulations. The regulations were to have been made no later than 25 March Draft regulations were issued by the Government Equalities Office on 12 February 2016, regulations are expected in June or July 2016, and mandatory gender pay gap reporting is expected to commence from April Section 78 provides: (1) Regulations may require employers to publish information relating to the pay of employees for the purpose of showing whether, by reference to factors of such description as is prescribed, there are differences in the pay of male and female employees. (2) This section does not apply to (a) an employer who has fewer than 250 employees; (b) a person specified in Schedule 19; (c) a government department or part of the armed forces not specified in that Schedule. (3) The regulations may prescribe (a) descriptions of employer; (b) descriptions of employee; (c) how to calculate the number of employees that an employer has; (d) descriptions of information; (e) the time at which information is to be published; (f) the form and manner in which it is to be published. (4) Regulations under subsection (3)(e) may not require an employer, after the first publication of information, to publish information more frequently than at intervals of 12 months. (5) The regulations may make provision for a failure to comply with the regulations (a) to be an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale; (b) to be enforced, otherwise than as an offence, by such means as are prescribed. (6) The reference to a failure to comply with the regulations includes a reference to a failure by a person acting on behalf of an employer. 12

13 Employers must publish information on whether there is a pay gap between men and women, if they have 250 or more employees. It is expected to affect over 7,000 UK businesses. Statutory Code of Practice and the Five-Step Model 28. The Equality and Human Rights Commission s ( the EHRC ) statutory code of practice on equal pay was issued under section 14 of the Equality Act The Government Equalities Office says that during 2016 it will issue guidance for business on mandatory gender pay gap reporting. The EHRC defines an equal pay audit as an exercise involving comparing the pay of protected groups who are doing equal work in an organisation, investigating the causes of any pay gaps by gender, ethnicity, disability or working pattern and planning to close any gaps that cannot be justified on grounds other than one of those characteristics. It sees the benefits as complying with the law and good practice, identifying, explaining and eliminating unjustifiable pay gaps, having rational, fair, transparent pay arrangements, demonstrating to employees and to potential employees a commitment to fairness and equality and demonstrating the business s values to its trading partners. Of course, there are also the advantages of avoiding a regulatory breach and avoiding defending costly equal pay claims, too. 29. The EHRC recommends a five-step plan. Step 1 involves deciding the scope of the audit and identifying the information required. Employers will be asking themselves which employees they are going to include, what information they need and what tools are available, what resources are required, who should be involved in conducting the audit, when the workforce should be involved, and whether expert advice is needed. 13

14 30. At step 2, the employer determines where men and women are doing equal work. 31. The third step is to collect and compare pay data to identify any significant pay inequalities between roles of equal value. This requires the calculation of average basic pay and total earnings. The EHRC says that any difference of 5% or more between the average basic pay or average total earnings of men and women doing equal work is a significant difference. It recommends that employers notice patterns of basic pay difference of 3% or more, for example, where women are consistently earning less than men for equal work at most or all grades or levels in the organisation. The employer should also compare access to and amounts received of each element of the pay package, and examine the proportion of men and women who receive each element, and the average amount of each pay element received by men and women and the gap between them. 32. At step 4, the employer will establish the causes of any significant pay inequalities and assess the reasons for them, such as length of service, starting pay, pay protection, pay progression, market factors, and performance, says the EHRC. We know that employers sometimes discover pay discrepancies which turn out to be caused by mistakes, factors which are unknown and hard to understand, and direct and indirect sex discrimination. 33. Finally, at step 5, the employer should develop an equal pay action plan to remedy any direct or indirect pay discrimination. Pay gaps should be remedied or objectively justified, and in the meantime, the EHRC recommends introduction of an equal pay policy in the business. The Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations 34. So, how do the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2016 differ from the EHRC s recommendations? My commentary is based on the draft 14

15 regulations as they are at the present date. The consultation on the draft regulations closed on 11 March 2016, and the final regulations are expected to be issues in June or July 2016, coming into force in October The publication of the first equal pay audits by employers, however, will not be due until April There are only ten regulations and it convenient to deal with them in turn. Under regulation 1, the mean and median are defined. As you all know, the mean average is obtained by adding up all the wages of the relevant employees and dividing by the number of relevant employees, and the median average is obtained by putting all of the wages figures of the relevant employees into ascending or descending order, and picking out the middle value in the series. A relevant employee is one who works in Great Britain under a contract of employment governed by UK legislation, and a relevant employer has 250 or more relevant employees. The relevant date, where the wages reference period starts, is 30 April 2017, and its anniversaries. 36. Regulation 2 defines pay, and its provisions are consistent with the Office for National Statistics practice on the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Pay includes basic pay, paid leave, maternity pay, sick pay, area allowances, shift premium pay, bonus pay and other pay. Other pay includes car allowances, on call and standby allowances, and clothing, first aider or fire warden allowances. Pay excludes overtime, expenses, the value of salary sacrifice schemes, benefits in kind, redundancy, arrears and tax credits. A gross figure for pay is used. 37. Under regulation 3, employers are required to publish the difference in mean pay between men and women, the difference in median pay, the difference in mean bonus pay, the proportion of each sex receiving bonus pay, and the numbers of men 15

16 and women in quartile pay bands. Publication must be within a year of 30 April 2017 and then every 12 months. 38. Regulation 4 sets out how to calculate the mean gender pay gap. It must be done across the whole workforce, which one might consider to be at the blunt end of the spectrum of equal pay audits, compared with the sophistication and subtlety recommended by the EHRC. The Government says that this sort of equal pay audit will be useful because women are often over-represented at the low earning extreme and men are often over-represented at the high earning extreme in the workforce. 39. The calculation of the median gender pay gap is explained in regulation 5. Again, it is an audit across the whole of the workforce. The Government says that this will provide the best representation of the middle earner and the typical difference. According to the Government, the median average has the advantage of being unaffected by the presence of a few very high earning males in the workforce. 40. Regulation 6 contains the calculation method for the mean gender pay gap in bonus. The employer also has to publish the proportion of male and female relevant employees who received bonus pay as a percentage of all relevant male and female employees. 41. The quartile bands are described in regulation 7. Each quartile will contain one quarter of the salary data, which will have been placed in ascending or descending order. The Government says that employers will be able to examine the numbers of men and women in each quarter by looking at their overall pay distribution, and then consider where women are concentrated and if there are any blockages to progression. It seems to me that many larger employers will find this exercise crude and even facile, because they are already well aware of a range of work and social 16

17 factors which seem to inhibit women from reaching the higher-paid roles in their organisations. 42. A written statement of accuracy of the gender pay gap report is required by regulation 8. It must be signed by the designated member of an LLP, the general partner of a limited partnership, a partner of a traditional partnership, a member of the governing body or the most senior employee of an unincorporated association, or the most senior employee of any other type of body. 43. Under regulation 9, the gender pay gap report must be published on the employer s website in English, in a manner accessible to all employees and the public. It must be displayed for at least three years and also uploaded to a Government website. You will note that there are no sanctions for non-compliance. 44. Regulation 10 provides that the Government must review the regulations and publish its conclusions, including the objectives of the regulations and whether they have been achieved, and whether the objectives could be achieved with less regulation. The first report, however, is not due until October Choices for Businesses 45. Mandatory gender pay gap reporting will affect only those businesses with 250 or more relevant employees. Smaller organisations, however, have a choice whether to conduct an equal pay audit for their own reasons. Businesses which are obliged to comply with mandatory gender pay gap reporting now face a choice whether to do the minimum required, which will leave them with a fairly crude equal pay audit, or whether to undertake a meaningful best practice audit. They may also wish to investigate whether their organisation has pay gaps to do with race, disability, sexual orientation, age, maternity, religion or belief, or transgender status. 17

18 Practical Issues 46. Those clients who decide to undertake a sophisticated equal pay audit of their workforce will then have to deal with a range of practical issues which tend to arise. The task will be made simpler or more difficult by the quality of the payroll records, and the ease of access to and handling of pay data. Issues of employee confidentiality and data protection may arise. When conducting a wider equal pay audit that than required by the new regulations, some businesses will seek to rely on legal advice privilege, to protect themselves from intrusive questions from employees. Many employers will find that conducting an equal pay audit reveals some embarrassing pay gaps, which may provoke equal pay claims. On the other hand, Human Resources representatives often find it frustrating when the results of equal pay audits are not fully shared with the workforce. Both HR and employees should be engaged in the process at least partially, if possible. Ideally, the employer s women s network should be involved, and the process should culminate in a revised equal pay policy in the organisation. Conclusion 47. Why would a sensible business volunteer for a heavier equal pay audit than the regulations will require? There are many sound business reasons for wishing to eliminate unjustified pay gaps in the workforce, whether you are a follower of John Rawls, Richard Posner, or another philosopher. At current rates of progress, the gender pay gap in the UK will take 47 years to close. Harini Iyengar May