Although more companies say they’re striving for pay equity and transparency, about 34% still don’t have a pay equity strategy in place, according to a June 27 report from beqom, a compensation platform.
More than half of compensation decision-makers said they doubt their company complies with global standards, and 45% said their approach to pay equity is hurting their ability to attract talent.
“Our survey shows employers grapple with addressing wage discrepancies and promoting fair compensation. They understand the urgency in confronting wage gaps but find themselves navigating a complex web of regulatory requirements and stakeholder demands,” Tanya Jansen, co-founder and CMO of beqom, said in a statement.
“However, there is clear evidence of progress and enthusiasm around integrating pay equity into compensation strategies — employers just need help,” she said. “They need more guidance to understand pay equity standards and how to correctly implement compensation strategies that minimize compliance risk.”
In a survey of 875 U.S. and U.K. salary decision-makers, just 2 in 5 said they’re aware of global pay equity standards. However, they’re trying to make progress — 70% said they’ve analyzed their compensation strategies and shared gender pay gap statistics with employees and/or external stakeholders. A majority of companies have also uncovered wage discrimination, promotion disparities, below-market salary ranges and pay compression.
In response, most companies reported taking steps to close existing gaps and foster transparency, such as listing salary ranges within new job descriptions (81%), increasing salaries due to inflation and economic standard-of-living costs (68%) and implementing a process for continuous feedback (67%).
Survey respondents also said their companies are increasing pay to correct pay gaps and salary inconsistencies, providing a clear structure for bonuses and performance review processes, making executive pay visible and disclosing the pay ratio for executive officers and median employees.
Pay structures are beginning to change to meet equity and transparency goals, according to a Payscale report. At the same time, while organizations have become more transparent, they still only tend to disclose data to individual employees and only when required to do so, the report found.