Two employees - same job, same hours -different pay

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  • DKLS
    DKLS Posts: 13,459
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    Its common practice, wherever I have worked, staff doing the same job to be paid differently, and usually its a sackable offence to discuss salary with other staff.

    I gave two staff appraisals yesterday, both doing the same roles, but they couldnt be more different, 1 came to the meeting armed with facts and figures about their performance, lots of new ideas and enthusiasm and she negotiated a 3K payrise and 2 additional days holiday out of me, the other didnt put any effort in to the appraisal and got £500.

    I am very pleased as I budgeted up to 4k each.
  • floss2
    floss2 Posts: 8,030 Forumite
    does no one else here work in jobs/companies/industries were pay is performance related and where differences in salaries would be the norm :confused::confused::confused:

    Yep, I have....quite common until my current employer (local authority undergoing pay review)
  • floss2
    floss2 Posts: 8,030 Forumite
    Apart from anything else, it may just be that the other person has more relevant experience or is just better at the job.......and therefore can command a higher salary.
  • surreysaver
    surreysaver Posts: 4,022
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    The only time that might be unlawful is if a male and a female worker were doing the same job and hours but one was being paid less than the other - if there were no other explanation, the conclusion might be made that the difference in pay was due to their gender, and that would be unlawful.

    What if one is gay, and one straight? Or one black and one white? Then it might be unlawful too!
    I consider myself to be a male feminist. Is that allowed?
  • blue_haddock
    blue_haddock Posts: 12,110 Forumite
    chocky wrote: »
    Two people, doing exactly the same job and hours - doesnt equality mean equal pay too?

    No it just mean one is better at negotiating a better wage for himself!
  • Conor_3
    Conor_3 Posts: 6,944 Forumite
    chocky wrote: »
    However, my husband has since found out that a colleague who does exactly the same job and hours as my husband gets £1000 more a year than my husband!

    I'm fairly certain this is not legal and that my husband has a case to argue..

    Its perfectly legal to pay someone doing a job whatever the employer wants to as long as its at least NMW. There is nothing anywhere in law which states that two people doing the same job have to be on the same pay save equal pay law for women but that's for something entirely different than your post.
  • zzzLazyDaisy
    zzzLazyDaisy Posts: 12,497
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    What if one is gay, and one straight? Or one black and one white? Then it might be unlawful too!

    The point I was making - perhaps not very clearly - was that having different pay for people performing similar roles is not, in itself, unlawful, which is what OP seemed to believe.

    It is only when such pay differentials are based on factors which amount to unlawful discrimination that they would fall foul of the law - in my example gender, but yes, you are of course right - differential pay scales based wholly or mainly on sexual orientation, race, religion, disability or age (rather than experience) - would all be unlawful. As would a policy of, say, paying part-timers a lower hourly rate than full time workers, simply because they work part-time.
    I'm a retired employment solicitor. Hopefully some of my comments might be useful, but they are only my opinion and not intended as legal advice.
  • hayley11
    hayley11 Posts: 7,625
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    Okay just wanna stick my nose in, feel free to ignore me :D

    In an old job, I started 18 months after my colleague who did EXACTLY the same thing as me but within a year I'd overtaken her in pay because I performed very well and she didn't. She always got the smallest cost of living rise.

    And in my most recent job, 9 of us started on the same day (it was for an insurance company in the call centre) some of were offered higher than others based on our experience and qualifactions.

    So I can't see it being illegal. It doesn't even make sense to say two people doing the same job SHOULD be on the same wage because as with the first example, one might work really hard and achieve and the other might not. Wouldn't be fair for the hard worker to miss out and wouldn't be fair if the other person got a rise for nothing.

    OP - not saying your OH is not hardworking or anything like that, this is just my experience, it might be totally unfair what his employers are doing :)
    :heart: Think happy & you'll be happy :heart:
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