How to Achieve Equal Pay at Your Company

According to the Global Gender Gap Report from 2021, it could take 135.6 years to close the gender pay gap and achieve true pay equality at this current pace. While the United States Government wrote the Equal Pay Act into law in 1963, there is still much work to be done.

In 2020, the average woman earned 84% of what a man earned. There is still a lot of progress that needs to be achieved to close that gender pay gap in the labor market. However, you can help by promoting pay equality at your company. While it’s not an overnight process, there are a few steps you can start taking today to ensure that you pay your employees fairly.

Equal Pay Day is the perfect reminder to address this issue, so keep reading for a few strategies that will help your business be successful by promoting equal pay.

Review Compensation Regularly

Some employers only review salaries when it’s time for annual raises, but your company should be continuously auditing salaries at your company. You should do this at least once a year, but it would be even better if you could do it twice a year.

HR teams will need to partner with finance teams. You’ll have to assess the cost of living, location expenses, and the average salary for specific positions and industries. You can use tools like the Glassdoor calculator to help you figure out what a fair wage would be for your employees.

However, the critical part is making sure that you have time to address these issues. If there is no policy to discuss these topics, you open yourself up to the possibility of having wage gaps.

In addition to having these internal conversations, set up conversations with your employees. Give them advanced notice so they can prepare and negotiate for themselves. You’ll also have enough information to know what’s possible within the budget to make sure that your team members can have equal and fair pay.

Provide Pay Transparency

If you want to achieve equal pay, you should provide as much pay transparency as possible. Sometimes the wage gap can be hard to detect, and pay transparency will help your employees identify a pay gap.

They can find out which job opportunities provide more money, and they may want to rethink their decisions with this new information. However, it’s also essential that companies offer pay transparency about salary differences based on certain factors.

With more information and knowledge about the pay scale and the factors they’re compensated on, your employees can see that they’re being treated fairly. For example, one employee might make more money than another employee, but that employee might have more vacation time or more healthcare benefits. All of these factor into salary, so make sure that your employees understand this.

Don’t Ask About Salary History

When you’re hiring new candidates, avoid asking about their salary history. This shouldn’t be a factor in their compensation for the new role. Instead, focus on how this employee will add value to your business.

By asking about salary history and offering a new compensation based on that history, you could continue the trend of unequal pay, unconsciously bringing in a wage gap to your business. Instead, be transparent about salary in the hiring process.

Advertise Salary Ranges

You can be transparent about salary during the hiring process by providing salary ranges available for that position. When candidates have adequate information about the job’s salary, they can better negotiate a fair wage.

The salary ranges will help draw in more candidates looking for a job within that salary, and it’ll also advertise to employees how their wage falls into the range.

Some companies are more extreme and will even provide a formula to calculate their salary. They do this to provide as much transparency as possible. However, you don’t need to go that far. You can still disclose different ranges or bands for certain positions.

However, once you set these ranges, stick to them. If you start going over them, this is where wage gaps can begin to grow. If you want more room for negotiation, offer a wider salary range.

When candidates interview, be upfront about any bonuses or raises as well. Let them know when they’re eligible for a new salary or re-negotiate their pay and exactly how much it could be when they reach that milestone.

Provide Equal Opportunities

Some positions will pay more than others, and that’s okay. For example, an engineer will likely make more money than an administrative assistant. However, where wage gaps can start is when women don’t feel like they have an opportunity to move into those higher-paying positions.

One study found that for every 100 men that get promoted to a manager position, only 72 women are promoted or hired for that same position.

Make sure that the women at your company have access to opportunities and people to help them grow in their careers. Ensure that you give female employees the same feedback on their performance, give them high-profile assignments, and find a mentor or sponsor for them.

Establish an Equal Pay Practice

Another way to promote pay transparency is to establish an equal pay practice. This means that you’re pledging to make sure that all employees have access to information about their pay and that you will try to pay everyone fairly.

You should communicate information on the salary ranges, a process of how you evaluate the percentage of pay raises, and information on how often you do compensation audits. When you have this information available, your employees will understand your equal pay efforts a little bit more.

Many companies are taking action to help this, like Intel and Apple; they have all signed an Equal Pay Pledge. This means that they committed to reviewing their hiring practices, conducting reviews, and ensuring that everyone gets paid equally.

Keep in mind that it might take a little while to get your company to a point where you have true pay equality, but it’s good to start somewhere.

Start With Your Hiring Process

Equal pay starts with the hiring and recruiting process. If you aren’t providing a fair salary when you first hire an employee, then you’ll have an uphill battle trying to close the wage gap.

That’s where Recruiter.com comes in. We have the tools and resources to help you with recruiting, whether sourcing candidates, posting to job boards, or recruiting candidates to work for your company.

If you’re interested in how we can help you, contact us today to figure out which recruiting solution best fits your company.

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