The UK’s leading supermarkets are tentatively awaiting their equal pay claim outcomes after fellow retailer Next lost its legal challenge yesterday.

Law firm Leigh Day filed the gender-equal pay case against the retailer, representing 3,500 Next employees, but has also bought a claim against supermarkets Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Co-op, on behalf of 112,000 staff.

In a verdict that is thought to cost Next as much as £30m, the Employment Tribunal ruled that the retailer had failed to explain why it was paying its female-dominated sales consultants lower hourly pay than its warehouse staff, most of which are men.

Next had tried to argue at its hearing in May this year that it was not a case of gender discrimination, but instead that the market rate for a warehouse operative was more competitive than for a sales consultant.

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However the Tribunal said that it was not a valid defence for two labour markets doing equal work, but the male-dominated market is paid greater than the female-dominated market simply because of the difference in market rate.

While the outcome of the cases against supermarkets Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Co-op, will be “decided on its own particular facts”, the law firm added that it expects “the success of the Next staff will be a huge encouragement to all these cases”.

Leigh Day partner and barrister Elizabeth George said: “When you have female dominated jobs being paid less than male dominated jobs and the work is equal, employers cannot pay women less simply by pointing to the market and saying – it is the going rate for the jobs”.

“The Employment Tribunal has confirmed employers must go further to justify paying the different rates. They rightly found that Next could have afforded to pay a higher rate but chose not to and that the reason for that was purely financial.”

The supermarkets involved have been contacted for comment.