Equal pay claim fails: NHS Trust shows pay difference due to division size, not sex

When equal pay claims fail: the material factor defence

This case shows that even when a woman is doing like work to male colleagues who are paid more, an employer can still win if it proves the pay gap is due to a genuine, non-sex-based reason. The claimant, a divisional accountant in the Family Care Division, argued she should have been paid the same as male senior divisional accountants in Surgery and Medicine. The tribunal agreed her work was like work, but the Trust successfully argued that the higher pay was justified by the greater size and complexity of those divisions.

What the Trust did right

The Trust created the senior roles because the Surgery and Medicine divisions were larger and more complex. It then had the roles formally evaluated under the Agenda for Change job evaluation scheme, which confirmed they should be band 8b. The tribunal accepted that this was a genuine material factor unrelated to sex. The claimant had not applied for the senior roles, and there was no evidence that the grading was a sham or that sex played any part in the decision.

Why this matters for similar claims

Equal pay claims are not automatic wins just because a woman can show she does like work. Employers can defend by pointing to objective factors like job size, market forces, or geographical differences. The key is whether the factor is genuine and not a cover for discrimination. For employees, this means it is worth investigating why a pay difference exists before bringing a claim. For employers, it reinforces the importance of having transparent, non-discriminatory pay structures and job evaluation processes.