Insights
For HR Directors and reward leaders. Written by a practitioner who has spent seven years inside UK reward across FTSE-listed businesses, Big Four advisory and a global law firm. No jargon. No 60-page reports. One page, one idea, every figure cited.
The transposition deadline has passed. The reporting deadline is approaching. Where the directive applies to UK employers, and where the UK consultation is heading.
Pay transparency EU directive UK consultation
How to triangulate a role against ONS ASHE, sector surveys, and live market evidence in under an hour. The method behind every Payband Benchmark.
Salary benchmarking Method ONS ASHE
UK private sector pay rose 4.8 percent year on year through 2025. The median annual pay review was 3.2 percent. After four years of that gap, a new hire and a long-timer are £8 an hour apart at the desk next to each other.
Pay review Compensation
Most managers and most employees think the pay review meeting is where the decision happens. It is where the decision is announced.
The worker's right to ask for pay information is already live in countries that have transposed the directive. The UK consultation closes 27 October 2026.
Run the same role through Willis Towers Watson and Mercer and you can get numbers 12 percent apart. Both are reputable. Both are reading the market in good faith. The gap is information.
A new starter on the 2026 going rate. A loyal employee hired in 2022. After four years, £8 an hour apart at the desk next to each other.
The borrow-and-replace approach fails because the comparison unit is different. Gender pay gap measures two groups. Ethnicity and disability pay gap measure across many non-overlapping groups.
A worked example removes the heat. It replaces "I think I deserve more" with "the market says X, the band says Y, the gap is Z".
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