The right to equal pay for equal work for men and women was set out by the Equal Pay Act 1970. However, research from IRS has found that many organisations today are not keen to put in place structures and policies to ensure equal pay.

One in four of the 103 private sector organisations we surveyed have no plans to conduct an equal pay audit. Of those that detected pay inequalities, a significant minority decided to take no further action. It is perhaps no surprise then, that research from Celre, part of the XpertHR Group, recently found that it will be 187 years before the equal pay gap is closed.

These findings are in contrast to a survey we conducted earlier in the year in which we looked at how local authorities are approaching equal pay. Unsurprisingly, given that they have a duty to ensure their pay structures are equality-proofed, all of our respondents had conducted, were in the process of, or were planning, an equal pay audit.

Other top stories in this issue include:

• National minimum wage rises do not lead to redundancies
• Bid to curb City bonuses could lead to legal action
• Employees want health benefits

XpertHR was named business website of the year 2008 at the Association of Online Publishers awards - the online publishing industry Oscars.

The judges at the event, held on 1 October, commented: "As a great example of the success of a paid subs model, XpertHR.co.uk has had a tremendous year."

Sheila Attwood
Editor,
Pay and Benefits Bulletin

Pay reports recently added to the site:

First Hydro Company: 5.1% increase in first year of long-term deal

Boots Manufacturing awards: 3% increase to base rates

Construction industry: 6% increase in third year of deal

Firefighters and control staff receive 2.45% growth in rates

Printing industry: minimum weekly rate rises to £245.82

Welsh Assembly Government paybill increase of 3.2%

Pay review update: 10 October 2008

The latest pay review update table contains pay settlements at the Northern Ireland Civil Service, the Royal Opera House, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, World Duty Free Europe and many more.

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Statistics and forecasts

The datafile contains the most recent inflation, earnings and labour market statistics, pay settlement data and inflation and earnings forecasts. Our panel of City and academic forecasters is expecting headline inflation to peak at 5% in the third quarter of the year, but fall to 3.3% by the second quarter of 2009. Average earnings growth is expected to remain stable, averaging 3.8% in 2008 and 3.9% in 2009.

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From the blog

Launched and run by the editorial team that produces XpertHR and the IRS e-journals, the Employment Intelligence blog is regularly updated with news, comment and links to the latest employment developments. Recent posts include:

• Celre report reveals housing association pay
• UK interest rates cut to 4.5%
• XpertHR is business website of the year
• Hard times for the finance sector

Today's tip: daily updates

If you want to keep tabs on a particular topic or you just can’t wait for the next Pay and Benefits Bulletin newsletter, sign up for an XpertHR daily update. Go to My update settings and choose what interests you. Each day we add new articles, an email will be sent to you.

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This newsletter now has a "print all" button. Before pressing it, please be aware that this uses a lot of paper. For the sake of the planet and your toner cartridge, consider whether or not you need to use it. If you press "print all", this will send to your printer all articles linked from the newsletter. Print all articles.

Coming soon…

The next edition of Pay and Benefits Bulletin will include the findings of our annual pay prospects survey 2008/09, which will contain employers' predictions for pay rises over the coming year. We will also publish an analysis of pay deals over the past two years and survey the economic outlook for 2009.