Equal Pay Reform. Government Launches Consultation to Overhaul the System

The government launched a public consultation on 14 July 2026 to overhaul the UK's equal pay framework, saying the current system is failing the workers it was designed to protect. The Office for Equality and Opportunity is asking businesses, trade unions, legal experts, and individuals with lived experience of pay discrimination to help shape proposed reforms. The consultation closes at 5pm on 27 October 2026.

The announcement was accompanied by findings from a government commissioned call for evidence on equality law, which concluded that existing equal pay protections have become "excessively complex, costly, and protracted." Thousands of claims are currently stuck in the system, with some taking decades to reach resolution.

Alongside the consultation, the government published research commissioned from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study spanning 2009 to 2023. The study found the gender pay gap defined as the percentage difference in average hourly pay between men and women stands at around 16% among all employees in recent years.

That figure has changed little. It declined slightly between 2009 and 2016, then levelled off and has remained broadly stable since 2017.

The NIESR analysis breaks down what drives the gap. Around 30% is explained by occupational and industrial segregation, women are disproportionately employed in lower paid sectors such as hospitality and social care, and are less likely to hold managerial roles which men are approximately seven percentage points more likely to occupy. A further 20% is explained by differences in accumulated work experience. Women have, on average, 1 to 2 fewer years of paid employment than men over their working lives, largely because of caring responsibilities.

The remaining roughly 50% of the gap is unexplained by the factors the researchers were able to model. They suggest this unexplained component may reflect workplace practices, social norms, discrimination, or differences in the fields of study women and men pursue. For workers above the 60th percentile of earnings, this unexplained component becomes the dominant driver, a pattern the researchers describe as consistent with a "glass ceiling" effect.

The reform is structured in two phases. Phase one concentrates on fixing what the government describes as structural failures in the existing framework.

On transparency, the consultation seeks views on requiring greater openness about pay practices with the aim of allowing workers to identify potential discrimination before lodging formal claims. On process, proposals include reviewing the tribunal and court procedures for equal pay claims to make them faster, cheaper, and less burdensome for both sides.

The consultation also covers the creation of a new Equal Pay Regulation and Enforcement Unit, to be established with trade union involvement. The government says this body could be given strengthened powers to uphold equal pay law, though the precise scope is subject to consultation.

Phase two would extend the reach of the framework. Current equal pay law under the Equality Act 2010 applies primarily to pay differences between men and women doing comparable work. The government intends to consult on broadly levelling up protections to cover ethnic minority workers and disabled people as well. A separate proposal would require employers to take reasonable steps to ensure that outsourcing arrangements where labour is supplied through agencies or intermediaries rather than employed directly cannot be used to avoid equal pay obligations.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 gave women in Great Britain the legal right to the same pay as men doing equivalent work, one of the earliest pieces of sex equality legislation in the UK. It was consolidated into the Equality Act 2010, which extended and updated the framework across all protected characteristics.

Despite 56 years of statutory protection, the government's own research concludes that pay discrimination persists. The call for evidence found that neither workers nor employers currently benefit from the existing system, workers face lengthy, expensive proceedings, while employers are exposed to significant uncertainty and litigation costs.

Seema Malhotra MP, Minister for Equalities, said the legislation "needs reform to ensure it works for everyone." Sir Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Social Security and Disability, said the consultation was "an important next step" in ensuring "equal work should mean equal pay, regardless of your background."