Pay transparency or communication is a major focus for many employers these days.
Pay transparency is meant to shine a light on pay inequities and cause employers to fix them or not cause them in the first place.
One trend I see is the sole focus on base pay when employers are doing pay equity audits.
There are often big differences in other rewards that may or may not be caused by discriminatory factors.
Rewards like:
· Variable pay (e.g., bonuses or sales commissions) – What aspects of the payout are discretionary, if any? Do you trust the assessment of the employee’s performance if there is discretion used?
· Equity grants – Is there discretion in the amount provided to new hires or current employees? Or is it the same amount for everyone at the same career level?
· Overtime – Look at the overtime payments. Who gets it and who doesn’t? Find out how the opportunity to work for overtime pay is determined.
· Spot awards – Who is receiving these and who is not?
· Career Development – Who is getting their executive MBA courses paid for and who is not?
· Relocation – Are there exceptions being made to your normal policy? Who is getting the exceptions?
· Sign on bonuses – Do you have a policy written about these and is it followed?
· Paid time off – Did you provide an exception to your normal policy to a new hire? Why? Do you have unlimited paid time off? Who is taking time off? What factors are being used to approve time off? Are any of them discriminatory?
And then you can go further:
· Are you providing high potential employees with equity grants? Who is on your high potential list? Are the metrics for inclusion on the list standardized and used consistently? Is there favoritism?
· If you assign performance ratings, are you sure bias isn’t present? What about the performance feedback (written and verbal)? Is the same behavior called assertive for men and aggressive for women?
· Who is getting promoted? Are you doing a promotion analysis to determine if men are getting promoted quicker than women?
· When an employee is laid off, do you apply a standard severance policy for everyone? Or do you negotiate with each person and give more/less based on factors that could be viewed as discriminatory?
I could go on and on.
If our goal is to eliminate unfair treatment because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, disability, age (age 40 or older), or genetic information, then we must be willing to look at all these processes to find the inequities.
It starts with you. And with those of us at the table with you who can amplify your voice.
Let’s stop being quiet about our concerns and keep bringing up what needs to be reviewed and fixed.
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