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"   The laws were passed more than 40 years ago yet many women still aren&amp;#039;t being paid the same as men for doing the exactly the same work. We spoke to the Equality &amp;amp;amp; Human Rights Commission to find out exactly what you should do if you believe a male colleague is taking home more than you...  \u25AA The first step in making an equal pay claim is to gather any signs or information that lead you to believe you&amp;#039;re being underpaid compared to male colleagues in similar roles. Signs include being denied the bonus your colleagues receive when you&amp;#039;re on maternity leave or being given a different job title to a man who&amp;#039;s doing a similar job \u2013 make a written note of these. SIGN THE PETITION FOR EQUAL PAY HERE  \u25AA Talk to your line manager or your boss (depending on the size of the company) about your concerns and ask to know what your male counterparts are earning. Your boss can&amp;#039;t stop you or punish you for asking about colleagues&amp;#039; pay if you&amp;#039;re doing so because you suspect you&amp;#039;re being discriminated against. If you&amp;#039;re uncomfortable asking your boss first, ask a male colleague, whose position is similar to yours, what he&amp;#039;s earning. Employees are never under an obligation to keep their salary confidential but it is their personal choice to share or withhold it from you. SEE THE CELEBS WHO SUPPORT EQUAL PAY HERE  \u25AA Once you have the information you need to prove there&amp;#039;s a gender pay gap, first discuss it with your boss in an informal meeting to try to resolve it. If you have an employee assistance programme or HR union at your company, they should be able to help you prepare for your meeting by giving advice on difficult conversations and presenting your case. If you feel nervous about making your case alone, consider involving a mediator, which is an unbiased third party who helps both people to see the different points of views (although they don&amp;#039;t decide what happens next).  \u25AA If the meeting doesn&amp;#039;t deliver results, then most big organisations have a process for resolving complaints, which you can discuss with your HR team. A small business might not have such formalities, so you&amp;#039;ll need to be clear with the big boss about what you want to happen and what you&amp;#039;ll do if it&amp;#039;s not resolved. Once you&amp;#039;ve alerted HR, your claim will be investigated within your organisation. If they find that there is a pay gap, it&amp;#039;s in your employer&amp;#039;s interest to sort it out before it becomes a legal issue.  \u25AA The next step in the process, if your boss still refuses to resolve the situation, is to get legal advice. A solicitor specialising in Employment Law will be able to help you, although if you&amp;#039;re unsure of how to go about finding help, speak to the Citizen&amp;#039;s Advice Bureau. This legal advice will prepare you to take your case to the Employment Tribunal, which is an informal court hearing, open to the public. Employment Tribunals resolve disputes between employers and employees. Taking a claim to the tribunal can be done while you&amp;#039;re still working at the company or within six months if you have left but it may take several months before the tribunal hear your case.  \u25AA If you win your case, the tribunal will order your employer to raise your pay to match the man&amp;#039;s in relation to every element of your pay package. The reality is that most companies seek to resolve equal pay disputes with settlements that will see you recompensed in return for taking no further action.  \u25AA If you don&amp;#039;t win, you can appeal, but seek legal advice before you do this so you can increase the chances of a better outcome. Often the tribunal process can be emotional and stressful for both parties, so it&amp;#039;s always worth making a last attempt to resolve it with your boss. \u2028If you need any more information or guidance on equal pay, visit the Equality Human Rights Commission. Take action! Now join the Cosmo wage war! We want companies who employ 250 people or more to carry out a mandatory equal-pay audit every year - in other words, to go through their books and work out what the average salary is for women and men across the company. Then we want those overall figures to be made public. After all, if you don&amp;#039;t know there&amp;#039;s a problem, how can you fix it? Show your support here. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/worklife/careers/a15073/are-you-being-paid-enough/>