I’m currently reviewing my Companies non-analytical approach to job evaluation, in terms of risk to the business from equal pay claims.

We operate broad banding with no minimums or maximums and use broad generic criteria for each band level and do not use benchmark jobs. The bulk of our employees are professional and typically male. On the face of it we don’t appear to have any equal pay issues within job families but across job families we could have an issue as our pay rates are determined by reference to the market.

I’m confused on the issue of whether market based pay can be used as a material factor to defend differentials, CIPD publications and the EOC don’t appear to be in the same place on this. Can anyone share experiences of how they’ve tackled this issue or assessed risks within similar structures?

Cindy Douglas