Equal pay

Of course workers don’t have to be doing the same job to be entitled to the same salary. Certainly in the public sector, and in most large companies, jobs are assessed, and awarded points for such things as qualifications/experience needed, level of responsibility/risk, unsocial hours, working conditions, etc. Salary scales are then matched to the assessment score.

I don’t get your point about childcare at all. Men have children too, don’t they? My DS is taking a day’s leave today to look after his, as it’s half-term. How is that a problem?

For me its equality of opportunity that is the missing link. Not everyone has access to further training/education that would get them up the promotion ladder to a higher salary and not everyone can take up opportunities if they do get them due to other commitments be they male or female.

It'll be interesting to see if the job of shelf filler is classed as the same as warehouseworker. If it is, then whoever is paying the shelf filler less than the warehouseworker is getting is acting illegally. This suggests to me that the jobs are not classed as "the same", which is what I would expect. I'm not sure what a warehouseworker's job entails but I imagine it is significantly different from filling shelves in a shop. I'm thinking about the driving of those vehicles that lift heavy pallets and move them about, unloading lorries, and stuff like that.

Apples do have to be compared to apples, even the same variety of apples, to get a proper picture.

The jobs of shelf stacker and warehouse worker may not be classed as 'the same' but it is arguable which is the more difficult. The warehouse work may need more physical strength but the shelf stacker has to interact with the public, which can be very difficult and needs a different, equally valuable skill.

Which is where job evaluation comes in. The Equality Act states that there must be equal pay for work of equal value, not just for the exact same job.
www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=682

I’m not sure why lifting a heavy box in a warehouse is seen as more important/ difficult than serving customers.

Or that the unpleasant work that is done mostly by men (emptying bins etc) is any more unpleasant than some of the personal care carried out mainly by women.

Do shelf stackers serve customers? I've known people who had shelf stacking jobs. They worked when the shop was closed.

Not that I'm arguing one job is more valuable than another. Apples to apples covers value. It must be a very subjective judgement though.

Judging the value is also about how many people could do the job. A job that can be done by lots of people because it isn't very skilled or doesn't require specialist knowledge is less valuable in that respect thatn one that can be done by fewer people. Compare, for instance, being a GP with being the cleaner at the GP surgery.

No, I'm not saying the cleaning job is less valuable when it comes to the sense of pride in one's work that the cleaner might have, only that it needs fewer qualifications.

For all I know warehouseworkers moght need more qualifications (like driving pallet picker uppers) than a shop shelf filler.

As I said, it'll be interesting to see how the case pans out.