Employers may be dropping the ball when it comes to pay transparency, a new report from Aon suggests. While 87% of employers told Aon they could back up their pay decisions, only 20% of employers have addressed a mock or real pay transparency request.
This statistic is alarming, according to Aon, because it suggests most organizations will run into trouble if questioned about their pay rationale. Further, only a third of respondents said they have conducted a pay remediation analysis, and only 5% could say that remediation is largely complete, according to the pulse study tapping more than 1,000 companies for responses.
The biggest potential sticking point for pay transparency is managers, Aon noted. In the report, 43% of respondents said lack of manager readiness to explain pay decisions was the biggest barrier to implementing pay transparency — more than double the rate of respondents who said job architecture and role clarity were pay transparency barriers.
And as pay transparency laws continue to roll out across the U.S., mandates may expose gaps before employers can fix them.
This concern should be top of mind, if recent findings are any indication. The gender pay gap is widening, even as of 2026, according to Payscale data analysis. Beyond that, worker frustration with pay is bubbling up, with only 44% of workers saying they believe they’re paid fairly, according to Salary.com data.