Employers could quickly be forced to tell employees what their colleagues earn under brand-new federal government plans to improve pay openness.

Ministers are consulting on how to end pay discrimination by taking a look at measures that would make incomes clearer even before the recruitment procedure has actually started.

In an extreme overhaul of equality laws, the government is thinking about procedures such as making it necessary to publish wage brackets on job descriptions and requiring business to publish pay structures and progression requirements.

Also thought to be on the table is increasing fines for companies that fall nasty of equal pay rulings, the Times reports.

Equal pay rulings might also be broadened to include race and special needs equality, instead of just gender, and employers might be banned from inquiring about a candidate's wage history.

In a consultation the government said it was committed to 'ending pay discrimination at work and tackling the gender pay gap'.

It included it would 'take a look at the broadest possible series of potential choices to attain this, consisting of pay transparency measures' and noted a variety of efforts companies could carry out.

The overhaul to equality laws would also reveal authorities personally accountable for socioeconomic drawbacks in their decisions.

Employers might soon be forced to tell employees what their coworkers earn under brand-new government plans to boost pay openness (Pictured: The City of London)

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A spokesperson for the Conservatives told the Times the brand-new procedures would penalist the middle classes and those who are prviately educated.

A federal government representative rubbished the claim, including: 'Positive discrimination is not acceptable under the Equality Act, and this stays the case with the socioeconomic duty.

'What our task will do is need specified public bodies to consider how their options might take on socioeconomic inequality of outcome.'

The new equivalent pay rules could be imposed by a new governmental body, the Equal Pay Regulatory and Enforcement Unit, which would be given the power to isues fines, injunctions and change employee contracts.

Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, informed the Times: 'Encouraging higher pay openness is an excellent thing in principle but a few of the steps being recommended just don't fit the reality of small company life. It's also essential to bear in mind that numerous little companies don't formally market functions at all; they employ through word of mouth or their own networks.

'This is a clear case where it would be extreme for government to impose comprehensive regulatory rules on little employers who just don't have HR departments.'

A federal government representative said: 'This government is pro-business and lots of companies already go well beyond the requirements of the law in order to support pay equality.

'We are looking for to build the evidence base before deciding whether any changes in relation to pay transparency are essential. By collecting proof on how best to take on pay variations, we will be able to make certain that we increase the benefits to both workers and companies.'

Conservatives