REC cautious about government’s equal pay and pay discrimination plan

Responding to the government consultation on equal pay and pay discrimination, Neil Carberry, Chief Executive at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), said:

“Pay setting is complex and needs to reflect the labour market, but there is no excuse for illegal unequal pay where a key factor is ethnicity, disability or any other protected characteristic. Businesses will welcome moves that increase accuracy and speed in the equal pay process.

“But we need to be clear that what we have now isn’t working, and there is a real risk that Government embeds these failures if it gets the process wrong. Other countries, like New Zealand, have taken action to ensure that legitimate claims for equal pay based on the notion of equal value can move forward, but those driven by prospecting lawyers comparing very different jobs in very different labour markets on weak and subjective comparability bases, cannot. We need to do the same. A more modern, robust and extensive equal pay architecture is necessary – but it must begin by addressing the failures of the system we have now.

“We are hugely concerned, in this regard, by proposals to interfere with commercial relationships between firms. Where comparability with workers in another company is appropriate – such as through the Agency Workers Rules – we already have a complex and effective system. It would be impossible and impractical to ask firms to compare the wages of an agency temp to anyone other than the workers doing that role in the client company. Anything more than this would create red tape that might help politicians feel better about themselves, but will do nothing to advance meaningful pay equality. Instead, it will put further barriers in the way of the thing that makes the most difference to workers, especially those from under-represented backgrounds: access to good jobs.”

Notes to editors

Government consultation on equal pay and pay discrimination, July 2026