Staff salaries: internal benchmarking

Benchmarking internal staff salaries helps to make sure you’re paying staff fairly and following equality legislation. See advice on when and how to carry out a review.

Last reviewed on 24 February 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 13506
Contents
  1. Why do internal benchmarking?
  2. When should you benchmark?
  3. How to start internal benchmarking
  4. Fair pay doesn’t mean equal pay

This article is about internal benchmarking, which means reviewing the salaries of your own staff to make sure they’re fair and legal. To read about external benchmarking - how much you pay compared to other similar schools - head here.

Why do internal benchmarking?

It's against the law to discriminate because of a protected characteristic - this includes paying someone less simply because of their characteristics. 

Make sure you’re following equality law

Internal benchmarking ensures you’re paying your staff fairly and not discriminating, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

The protected characteristics are set out in the Equality Act 2010. They are:

  • Age
  • Gender reassignment
  • Being married or in a civil partnership
  • Being pregnant or on maternity leave
  • Disability
  • Race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

Are there any pay discrepancies that might be attributed to a protected characteristic? If we have staff