Equal pay checklist
Download our checklist to ensure all your organisation's pay systems are compliant with the legal obligation of equal pay for equal work.
Please note this web page was first published in July 2020 and was last reviewed for accuracy in September 2025.
Equal pay is a legal obligation under the Equality Act 2010.
Your organisation’s pay system is the basis on which you reward employees for their contribution to your organisation.
Checking and addressing any potential risk hotspots in these systems will help you ensure they are fit for purpose.
To help you, we have created a simple checklist which will help you ensure your organisation is compliant when it comes to equal pay.
1. Know your pay systems
- Know all your different pay systems.
- Check there are no disparities.
- Ensure you cover all staff, including apprentices.
2. Use job evaluation
- Make sure you consistency check banding outcomes.
- Use local recruitment and retention premia.
- Ensure you’re up to date with training.
3. If you make changes to any of your pay systems, you must:
- Compare your pay data.
- Review proposed changes.
- Decide whether any detrimental impact is justified.
4. Document your decisions
All decisions and agreements should be documented and retained for at least six years.
- Job descriptions.
- Job matching outcomes
- .Local evaluation outcomes and JAQs.
- Pay rates for all staff.
- Justification for applying RRPs.
- Information about promotion and downgrading.
- Information about organisational change and mergers.
- Equal pay reports.
- Gender pay gap reports
- Equality impact assessment (EAI) reports.
For more information on equal pay, read this guidance from the Job Evaluation Group.
