More than £1 billion has been paid to women in equal pay arrears following long-running claims against UK councils, in cases that have exposed the cost of historic grading and pay practices in local government.
The GMB, a UK trade union, said women had now received £1.095 billion across settled claims involving six councils, with major payouts including Glasgow and Birmingham.
But tens of thousands of claims remain unresolved across local authorities, and the union said further cases were expected, leaving employers facing continued legal exposure and pressure to demonstrate that pay systems can withstand equal pay scrutiny.
How councils built up equal pay liabilities
Equal pay claims in local government commonly arise where roles dominated by women, such as care, cleaning and catering, are graded lower or attract weaker terms than roles dominated by men, even where the work is assessed as comparable.
In the UK equal pay obligations are set out in the Equality Act 2010. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has said that men and women doing equal work must receive equal pay unless a difference can be justified, and that failures can lead to expensive tribunal claims and reputational damage.
The legal risk can be compounded in organisations with complex grading structures and long histories of local allowances, bonus schemes or uneven job evaluation practices. The Commission says robust job grading structures can reduce the risk of equal pay issues, an area that has been central to many local authority disputes.
More claims in the system
GMB said settled claims totalled £770 million in Glasgow, £250 million in Birmingham, £60 million in Sheffield, £10 million in Leeds and £3 million each in Blaenau Gwent and Falkirk.
The union said 40,000 claims remained outstanding across 28 local authorities and that a further 10,000 claims were set to be launched across five more councils.
Rhea Wolfson, GMB head of industrial relations, framed the £1 billion milestone as long overdue and warned employers about future action. “Fifty years on from the equal pay act, it should be a source of national shame we have to make these claims,” she said. “But it’s amazing to know more than £1 billion pounds will now be paid to the women who are owed it, including around £250 million confirmed to Birmingham women just before Christmas.”
She added that “[e]mployers need to take note in 2026. Wherever GMB sees women being underpaid compared to men, in the public or private sector, we are coming for you”.
The scale of unresolved claims matters to HR departments because it suggests the problem is not confined to a small number of legacy cases. It also indicates that equal pay exposure can remain live for years after an employer begins reforming pay arrangements, particularly where historic practices are alleged to have affected large groups of staff.
Birmingham’s experience shows the wider employer risk
Birmingham City Council has become one of the highest profile examples of how equal pay liabilities can intersect with wider financial pressures. The council has previously said it faced a potential equal pay liability in the region of £650 million to £760 million, and that equal pay was a major factor behind its Section 114 notice in September 2023.
The link between equal pay exposure and wider organisational risk has been repeatedly emphasised in commentary around Birmingham’s finances. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, for example, described the council’s equal pay liability as a significant element of the Section 114 context alongside the in-year budget shortfall.
GMB and other unions have also argued that large scale liabilities reflect systemic failures in how pay risks were managed over time. Local government sector reporting around Birmingham’s more recent agreements has included commitments to review job evaluation approaches and rebuild trust with staff and unions, issues that many HR teams will recognise as essential in preventing repeated disputes.
For councils and other large employers, the implications extend beyond arrears payments. Equal pay disputes can disrupt workforce relations, create long term legal costs and force difficult budget choices that affect recruitment, retention and service delivery.
What HR teams can take from the latest figures
For HRreview readers planning 2026 priorities, the cases reinforce several practical lessons.
First, equal pay risk does not sit neatly in one department. It requires coordination between HR, finance, legal and operational leaders, because liabilities can be large enough to affect budgets and workforce planning. The Birmingham example shows how historic pay issues can become a defining organisational challenge once they reach scale.
Second, communication matters as much as policy. Even where employers believe their grading arrangements are defensible, they may struggle to maintain trust if staff do not understand how roles are evaluated or why pay differences exist. The Commission’s guidance emphasises the importance of job grading structures in reducing risk, and that should prompt HR leaders to check whether job evaluation evidence is current, documented and consistently applied.
Third, equal pay compliance needs ongoing maintenance. Employers can reduce exposure by regularly reviewing job descriptions, evaluation outcomes and contractual terms, and by ensuring that any pay differences can be objectively justified. ACAS guidance notes that equal pay law covers like work, work rated as equivalent and work of equal value, which is a reminder that comparisons can be made across very different roles.
The GMB figures also suggest the story is not finished. With thousands of claims still in progress and more expected, councils and other employers with complex pay structures are likely to face continued scrutiny in 2026, particularly where historically female dominated roles remain clustered at lower grades.
William Furney is a Managing Editor at Black and White Trading Ltd based in Kingston upon Hull, UK. He is a prolific author and contributor at Workplace Wellbeing Professional, with over 127 published posts covering HR, employee engagement, and workplace wellbeing topics. His writing focuses on contemporary employment issues including pension schemes, employee health, financial struggles affecting workers, and broader workplace trends.
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
