Racial discrimination occurs where one person is treated less favourably than another person and the reason for that less favourable treatment is related to their colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins.

Under the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act it is unlawful for an employee to be treated differently from other employees where the reason for that different treatment relates to their sex, marital status or because they are undergoing, about to undergo or have undergone a gender reassignment.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) introduced significant rights for disabled people. It has since been updated by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. Under the DDA, it is unlawful for employers to discriminate against disabled people for a reason related to their disability, in all aspects of employment, unless this can be justified.

As of the 1 October 2006, UK employees were given new rights not to be unfairly treated in the workplace on account of their age. This protection extends to all aspects of employment including job applications, promotion, pay and benefits, pensions and retirement. The regulations provide that an employer may not lawfully discriminate against an employee on the basis of age unless the employer is able to show that the discrimination is justified. For these purposes, age means any age, whether young, middle or old.

Although there are no accurate statistics for the number of lesbians, gay men or people who are bisexual - it is believed that they make up ab out 7% of the UK population. Despite this there continues to be a considerable prejudice against those with different sexual orientation. The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 were introduced to help tackle this.

Few areas of life are more likely to lead to differing views and firmly held opinions than that of religion or belief. The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 was the first attempt to try and protect those views in the workplace.

Despite over 38 years of equal pay legislation, and despite the growth in protection afforded to all groups by the anti-discrimination legislation, nevertheless there continues to be a disparity in the rates at which different workers are paid for what amounts to the same, or a broadly similar, job. This section looks at equal pay legislation and the steps which employees should take to ensure that they receive the same pay as comparable colleagues and at the issues which employers should consider when planning their pay strategies and scales.