"I was first made aware that I might not be being paid fairly during a boozy Christmas pub lunch in 2011. I'm a property lawyer and it was my round at the bar when one of my male colleagues stepped in front of me to pay the barman. I explained it was my turn to buy the drinks and one of the personal assistants piped up, 'Let him pay – he can afford it more than us!' I didn't think anything of it until the next morning when that comment started to play on my mind.
"The colleague in question had entered the grad scheme at the same time as me and was by no means better at his job so how could he 'afford it more' than me? I was absolutely furious at the suggestion that someone who was essentially doing the exact same role as me was being paid more.
"I wanted to know I wasn't being paranoid but it's very difficult to ask people what they earn – it's such a British thing that we feel we're not able to discuss salaries! But luckily I had a good enough relationship with my male colleague that I was able to ask him outright. I explained the situation and how it wouldn't actually reflect badly on him – the only thing I wanted was a pay rise.
"He was earning £5,000 more than me per year. It wasn't as much as I'd feared it might be but enough that I knew I wanted to take action. We'd both entered the firm as graduates so there was no way my employer could say he'd negotiated a higher wage because of a previous salary. We'd both been there for the same amount of time – four years.
"I did my research and studied the updated Equal Pay Act 2010 which entitles a woman doing equal work as a man in the same employment to equality in pay. It's important to note that I did speak briefly to a lawyer who specialised in these settlements, but decided to speak to my boss on my own and take it from there.
"Luckily, my boss was incredibly supportive and slightly embarrassed (as he should be!) when I sat down to speak to him about it. He told me he wanted to sort it out straight away and agreed to draw up an equal pay policy for the company.
"My wage was matched with my colleague's with immediate effect. Under Equal Pay law, you're entitled to up to six years of back pay if you're found to have been underpaid by your employer but I love my job and didn't want to take legal action against my employer, especially when it was sorted out without fuss.
"I'm happy to know that because I challenged my company, women who now come to work for us will also benefit from the equal pay policy. I think every woman should consider whether they're being paid fairly – it's madness that thousands of women could be doing the same job as a man for less."
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