Introduction to Equal Pay and the Three Types of Equal Work

Rooted in the Equality Act 2010, which consolidated the original Equal Pay Act 1970, this video addresses Assessment Criterion 2.2 of 5OS01 by examining the legal requirements of equal pay in UK employment law. A central focus is the sex equality clause, which is implied automatically into every employment contract by operation of law, covering the full range of contractual terms rather than basic pay alone. The video also examines the requirement for an actual comparator of the opposite sex in equal pay claims, including the rules around same or associated employers, common terms across different sites, and the use of a predecessor in the same role.

The bulk of the video is devoted to the three statutory categories of equal work under the Equality Act 2010. Like work, work rated as equivalent, and work of equal value each receive dedicated treatment, with attention to how tribunals and independent experts assess whether two roles meet the relevant threshold. The work-rated-as-equivalent category brings in the role of analytical job evaluation studies and the question of whether a job evaluation scheme itself may contain gender bias. The work-of-equal-value category covers the demand headings used in assessments — including effort, skill, decision-making responsibility, and working conditions — and the circumstances in which an independent expert is appointed.

To ground the legal categories in practice, the video works through a scenario comparing a female HR administrator with a male facilities coordinator, illustrating how an equal value assessment analyses roles that appear dissimilar on the surface. This example connects the abstract statutory definitions to the kind of pay review and compliance work that HR professionals undertake when auditing contractual terms across a workforce. The persistent existence of the gender pay gap, noted at the outset, frames why these three categories and the comparator rules carry ongoing practical significance for organisations subject to UK employment law.