Last week, Harriet Harman announced new laws to combat the widespread gender discrimination. Under these new plans, age discrimination would be from all sectors of society, and further changes would be made to prevent job discrimination against minorities . There is also room for "positive action", with the Business-to-hire women or minorities without fear of legal action if the candidates are equal in terms of ability.

But how do these changes on the equality of rights, how we act now?

What is really so different?

The main points of the proposed law are:

- The company will be able to discriminate in favor of underrepresented ethnic groups and gender in their workplace, where candidates had the same situation.

- Clauses in contracts that prevent employees about their wages with colleagues will be scrapped.

- Age discrimination legislation be extended to the world outside the workplace.

There are also proposals on the table for public bodies to publish the pay gap within their organizations.

Why is the new system being introduced?

The new discrimination laws will be proposed to create a balanced staff in the UK, so that the employer the opportunity to discriminate in favor of one group against another with the same two candidates to diversify their work environment (as opposed to tabloid impact of these works in both directions, and the predominantly female office should discriminate in favor of a male candidate).

The section of the wages of the company will also try and reduce the huge wage differentials between men and women in business contracts. Although the gap narrowed in recent years, according to official figures, on average women still earn only 87p for every £ 1 that men earn. One of the statistics, Harriet Harman has used is that part-time women workers earn up to 40% less than their male counterparts in full-time. Through the company more open about their pay structures, it is hoped that the gap closes naturally.

Finally, the laws, the age, to combating discrimination have the feeling, on the basis of age in their daily lives.

Is not that age discrimination is already illegal?

While the workplace age discrimination is against the law since 2006, the proposed new legislation, equality, larger forms of age discrimination. This is planned to take the often costly discrimination that retirees in their daily lives, from the high insurance premiums to physicians diseases to their age and the refusal of treatment.

What are the main reservations of the new law?

The important things to note when talking about the future changes are:

- Companies may be forced to pay to publish

- Positive action is an option in interviews when the candidates are equally matched and will not be compulsory in any case.

- In some areas, probably from the age discrimination legislation, such as free bus for the elderly and public holidays for the over 50-year-olds and 18-30s.

Given the excitement that has been made against the affirmative action section of the bill, there is no guarantee that any part of the bill will always be right. Even if it is right, it's almost impossible to put an end to discrimination at work, because you can not know with certainty what an employer the reason for the more than one candidate. For most of us, this law means that very little of our business contracts, and we can be about selecting the best candidate for the job regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or age.

Iain Mackintosh is the managing director of Simply-Docs. The firm provides over 1100 business contracts covering all aspects of business from holiday right to non-disclosure agreements. By providing these legal documents (with content provided by leading lawyers, human resources and health and safety consultants) at an affordable price, the company intends to help small businesses avoid costly breaches of Regulation and legal action.