The Asda equal pay ruling that could wreck the UK’s labour market

I don’t know what it is like to work as a checkout assistant in Asda, still less in an Asda warehouse. But if I did work in a company’s shops and I learned that there were better-paid jobs available in its warehouses I am pretty sure I know what I would do: apply for a job in the latter. It wouldn’t occur to me to pick up the phone to a lawyer and claim I was a victim of discrimination. But then perhaps I am not suited to life in the age of grievance politics.

Today, the Court of Appeal has ruled that Asda may be guilty of sexual discrimination in that it is paying shop staff less than warehouse staff. It isn’t that female shop-workers are paid less than male ones working alongside them and doing the same job, nor that male warehouse staff are paid more than female warehouse staff doing the same job.