UK equality regulator urges legal right for staff to see colleagues' pay

The UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the country's equality regulator, has recommended that workers should have a legal right to know their colleagues' pay, in order to help prevent pay discrimination, particularly against women.

The recommendation was made in reply to proposals from the UK government to overhaul the country's equal pay laws. Ministers launched a public consultation in July 2026, inviting businesses, workers and civil society to help shape the next steps. The government has said it is committed to strengthening equal pay and ending pay discrimination.

In its full response, the EHRC said pay transparency, meaning openness about how pay is set and who earns what, is an important first step toward avoiding pay discrimination and supporting equal pay. The commission's release on the subject carried the headline "Make equal pay regime fit for purpose, equality regulator tells government."

The EHRC set out a series of specific proposals. It said employers should be banned from asking job applicants about their existing salaries during recruitment. It also said employers should be required, as a mandatory measure, to respond to pay transparency requests within a specified timeframe.

Under the EHRC's proposals, staff could use pay questionnaires to request a colleague's annual salary, hours worked, bonuses, overtime and job description. Staff should also be able to ask for job evaluation details, including job grades, salary benchmarks, internal scores and final evaluation records. A further proposal would let workers request a ranking of people in a similar team by annual basic pay and hours worked.

The questionnaire idea has a history in British law. UK ministers are considering forcing employers to respond to staff questionnaires about colleagues' pay, which would reintroduce a right that was abolished in 2014.

The scale of the issue is set out in official figures. The Office for National Statistics reported that, as of April 2026, women in full-time work earned 6.8% less on average than men, measured by the median gender pay gap.

Other countries have taken different approaches. In November 2021, Finland planned to let workers see colleagues' salaries in order to close its gender pay gap, according to Reuters, which reported that Finland ranked 37th in pay equality among OECD countries at the time. The European Union's Pay Transparency Directive, numbered (EU) 2023/970, requires employers to ensure equal pay for equal work through mandatory pay reporting. Under EU pay transparency rules, companies must share information on salaries and take action if their gender pay gap exceeds 5%, according to the Council of the European Union.