Corbyn vows to close UK gender pay gap

Firms which fail to give male and female staff equal pay will be exposed and face tough financial penalties under plans set out by Jeremy Corbyn to tackle the gender pay gap.

The UK Labour leader used his closing speech at his party's conference in Brighton to set out plans to force large companies to carry out equal pay audits to reveal the difference in wages paid to men and women.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will be given extra funding to implement the measure, Mr Corbyn said.

Mr Corbyn said: "Our party in government will take action to close the gender pay gap.

"We will introduce mandatory equal pay auditing for large employers and give the Equality and Human Rights Commission the funding it needs to drive through the change."

Equal pay audits involve comparing the pay of men and women doing similar jobs in an organisation.

The process is aimed at identifying any differences in pay between men and women doing equal work and investigating the causes.

Guidance produced by the EHRC says the audits should also eliminate instances of unequal pay that cannot be justified.

Labour's plans involve mandatory equal pay auditing in all businesses of over 250 employees to compare the pay of men and women doing equal work in the organisation.

Failure to comply with the law would result in civil penalties, which would reflect the scale of the offence and size of the company.