"This article is concerned with the conflicting perspectives of pay systems and structure that arise between legal opinion and labour economics/industrial relations theory and practice. It considers the progress of two equal pay claims concerning service-related pay involving the same employer, within uncontested ‘work rated as equivalent' criteria and on basically similar facts. The article describes the payment systems adopted by the employer that are at the root of the claims and describes the Employment Tribunals' principal findings of fact and summarises the judgments of the UK courts and the European Court of Justice. The findings and decisions provide a basis for a discussion of the impacts that bring about conflicts between these perspectives and questions whether the present arrangements for dealing with equal pay claims that challenge a pay structure are appropriate. "

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