So, if today’s Guardian is anything to go by, there aren’t going to be any compulsory pay audits coming out of the Women and Work Commission.

[Chair of the Women and Work Commission, Margaret] Prosser rules out the mandatory equal pay reviews called for by the unions. The answer, she believes, lies not in identifying a problem everyone knows exists, but in implementing “big policy changes” to create solutions.

Got at by the CBI, then. Of course they were never going to agree, when they had a chance to safely continue thirty years of inaction on women’s unequal pay for another thirty plus years. A voluntary solution means women at union-busting companies, small employers, employers without a public profile to maintain, employers with no director of CSR, will be left behind.

The only lever that will work is requiring employers to review their pay systems for (often unintentional) gender bias. Creating fair and transparent pay structures are essential to tackle unfair pay differentials and close the gender pay gap.

As a previous report in which Ms Prosser took part said (p16 - pdf):

In Chapters 3 & 4 we noted the reluctance of both employers and trade unions to acknowledge that there is a problem and a disinclination to undertake equal pay reviews and act on their results. The Task Force considers that there will be little or no speedy progress in closing the pay gap unless employers take the essential first step of examining whether they have gender pay inequalities in their workplaces. The overwhelming evidence to date is that they will not do so voluntarily. Given this finding, we consider we have no alternative but to make a strong recommendation that employers be required to conduct equal pay reviews.