Pay increase for staff based on method of pay - discrimination?

[chris.s87]

Hi all,

The company I work for has about 100 employees, most of which are paid weekly and a minority are paid monthly.
The company has decided to increase pay for all employees who are paid weekly. Great news for them, however for the rest of us who get our salary monthly, we are not getting a rise. The weekly-paid staff are not taking on any more responsibilities or have any other justification to receive the pay rise over the monthly paid staff. My colleague - let's say "Steve" - in my department has the same title as me and originally the same wage. Previously I took on more responsibilities and had an increase in wage for this reason, so currently earn a bit more than Steve. Steve is paid weekly and I am paid monthly. Therefore now Steve will be receiving a pay rise because he is included in the "weekly paid" group, but his job role and responsibilities will stay the same. As a result, Steve will be earning pretty much the same as me, despite the extra roles and responsibilities I have.

Understandably most of the monthly paid staff are unhappy that they are not also receiving a pay rise purely because of the method of receiving their pay. We are of course going to raise the issue internally and hope that it can be discussed and rectified. However if that doesn't work I'd like to know where we stand legally - would this be classed as discrimination?

Thank you in advance for any advice and appreciate your time

[ULA]

I can understand why the monthly paid staff are unhappy however unless there is direct or indirect discrimination based on a protected characteristic then an employer is free to determine rates of pay for individual/groups of workers.

I would certainly say that it is worth raising the issue internally, particularly if you can support your case with examples of the extra duties and increased responsibilities of the monthly paid employees.