Workers should have a legal right to know their colleagues' pay to help prevent pay discrimination, particularly against women, the UK's human rights watchdog has said.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) made the recommendation in response to government proposals to overhaul equal pay laws, saying workers deserved a right to transparency if they suspected other staff were being paid more for similar work.

The watchdog also said bosses should be banned from asking about applicants' existing salaries when recruiting staff. Companies are currently allowed to request that information, but potential recruits do not have to respond.

Ministers are considering forcing bosses to respond to staff questionnaires about their colleagues' pay, reintroducing a right that was abolished in 2014 as part of a drive to cut bureaucracy for businesses.

The EHRC said those forms should allow staff to request information about a colleague doing similar work, including annual salary and hours worked, as well as bonuses, overtime and their job description.

They should also be able to ask for details on any job evaluations carried out by bosses, revealing job grades, salary benchmarks, internal "scores" and a copy of any final job evaluation records.

They should also be able to ask for a ranking of each worker in a similar team, based on annual basic pay and hours, and have the right to push bosses for more information in cases where the data they receive is believed to be inaccurate or incomplete.

Crucially, the watchdog said bosses should be forced to respond within a "specified timeframe".

The EHRC said: "Without such a requirement, employers may delay, provide evasive responses or avoid responding. We suggest this should be introduced as a mandatory measure, rather than an 'optional' one, to adequately meet the policy aims of this consultation."

Ultimately, boosting pay transparency could help companies avoid employment tribunals, resulting in "early resolution of pay disputes", and help tackle the UK's gender pay gap where women historically earn less than men, the EHRC said.

The median gender pay gap, as of April this year, shows that women in full-time work earned 6.8% less, on average, than men in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. However, that figure is wider across areas such as the finance industry, where the mean and median pay gaps, at 24% and 22% respectively, are double the national average for UK companies.

The EHRC said: "Introducing a requirement that prevents employers from asking about salary history or expectations, alongside the proposed pay transparency measures in this consultation, will likely reduce pay gaps and discrimination against women."