Pay Equity

Pay Equity Audit & Certification

Our compensation experts will conduct our systematic process for assessing your organization’s internal and external compensation strategies and determine the extent to which employees across the organization are paid fairly.  We will assess differences in pay and determine if they are justified under the law or attributable to defensible factors.  If not, we will make recommendations regarding corrective actions you can take to remediate and get certified.  Throughout this process, we will leverage our CompAnalyst® Pay Equity Suite to conduct this audit and provide the guidance to help you leverage our tools as well.

Schedule a Consult Pay Equity Trial

Data Collection and Validation

For an accurate Pay Equity Audit, our team will help you determine the availability and quality of employee demographic data (such as gender, ethnicity, etc.) through our HR Metrics and Analytics service.  Establishing and maintaining data quality and integrity is a challenge for even the most sophisticated organizations, and a pay equity analysis will only be as good as the data on which it is based.  Salary.com’s Data and Analytics professionals will review and validate your data by being laser-focused on the critical elements that will power your equity metrics.

Job Analysis and Documentation

Conducting a Job Analysis is the starting point for a comprehensive Pay Equity Audit and the first step in designing a good compensation system. Our compensation experts will gather the content of all jobs within your organization and then help structure and document job descriptions.  For a solid pay equity process, it’s important to keep job descriptions updated throughout the year.  We can also guide you on how to leverage our JobArchitectTM product to use as your system of record for all job description management.

Define Comparable Work

The foundation of pay equity is equal pay for comparable work which is determined through a Job Evaluation process. Defining comparable work, or groups of comparable jobs, upfront ensures your pay equity analysis is accurate. Our consultants will help you define similar work through a comprehensive Job Evaluation process. From the Job Evaluation process, we can help you build Job Structures to support the comparable job groupings essential for an accurate Pay Equity Analysis. For a system of record of job structures and comparable work, we can also guide you on how to use CompAnalyst Pay Equity Suite to help define the job hierarchy necessary for this work. 

Internal Equity Analysis 

Our consultants will first conduct an assessment of pay gaps to determine if there are any pay differences between gender and other protected classes that are statistically significant, and whether these differences can be explained by a factor other than gender, race, or other demographic. Next our consultants will run a multi-variate regression and cohort analyses to identify potential pay disparities between employees doing comparable work, and which cannot be explained based on permissible job-related factors such as seniority, experience, qualifications, etc.  We can also help guide you on how to leverage CompAnalyst Pay Equity Suite to conduct a Pay Gap Analysis.

Remediation

Our consultants will develop recommendations on remediation strategies for internal equity outcomes and provide guidance and advise on the most appropriate distribution method for pay adjustments. We will work collaboratively with senior executives, legal counsel, and HR leadership to develop a strategy for making pay changes based on the organization’s risk tolerance, culture, and budgeted resources. 

Benchmark External Market Pricing

Market pricing is the process used to determine the external value of a job. At the core of Salary.com has been our powerhouse CompAnalyst compensation management software to help streamline the market pricing process. Salary.com’s compensation analysts will use CompAnalyst to benchmark your company jobs or guide you on how to market price them with CompAnalyst. We will leverage your survey sources and/or use our robust library of Compensation Data.

Compensation Program Design

Our consultants will help you design a compensation program that brings together the internal and external analyses for a fair and effective pay program.  Leveraging CompAnalyst, we will build salary structures, and also guide you on how to use CompAnalyst to maintain the structures and programs.  We will work with you to make the necessary changes based on your compensation philosophy. 

Company Compensation Philosophy 

Our compensation experts will work collaboratively with organizational leadership to focus on the creation of a sustainable pay philosophy that is aligned with organizational values, culture, and strategic goals. The resulting philosophy would state that your company is working to ensure a balance among external competitiveness, internal equity, and transparent communication. 

Transparent Communication Plan 

It’s critical to communicate transparently regarding your pay equity analysis and to develop consistent messaging to effectively manage employee and stakeholder expectations, while making sure to minimize risk and disruption. Our consulting team will support communication efforts by helping you create your communication plan, train managers on how to communicate with employees about pay and help train the HR and pay equity resources to sustain this communication and ongoing training. 

Update Continuously

A pay equity process must be regularly monitored. We recommend that you update job content, structures, and other key areas whenever there’s a new employee hired, a performance review, a termination or other key events that would affect overall compensation. We will help you set up the structure and process for this and guide you on how to leverage CompAnalyst Pay Equity Suite for ongoing alerts and insights. 

Pay Equity Certification

If you engage with Salary.com in a Pay Equity Audit, we would provide you with a Pay Equity Certification that documents your commitment to pay equity and your good faith participation in the audit. We will provide a written certificate as well as a badge that can be displayed to employees and to candidates and on your public website. Certification demonstrates that your organization has completed a comprehensive pay equity audit and is committed to being a fair payer. 

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Discover the full potential of our solution. Book a demo call today to explore its wide-ranging capabilities, including:
  • How to create salary structures
  • How to conduct pay equity audits
  • How to design incentive programs
  • How to price jobs using our market data
  • How to simplify compensation management
... and much more!
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Discover the full potential of our solution. Book a demo call today to explore its wide-ranging capabilities, including:
  • How to create salary structures
  • How to conduct pay equity audits
  • How to design incentive programs
  • How to price jobs using our market data
  • How to simplify compensation management
... and much more!

By clicking this button, you consent to receiving communications from Salary.com about our products and services. In doing so, you also consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe via email at any time or by visiting our preference center.

Insights You Need to Get It Right

The latest research, expert advice, and compensation best practices all in one place.

white paper

The Plunkett Pay Equity Framework

The Plunkett Pay Equity Framework

webinar

Closing the Pay Gap: Why Pay Equity Matters

Closing the Pay Gap: Why Pay Equity Matters

deeper dive

How To Fight for Pay Equity and Transparency

How To Fight for Pay Equity and Transparency

podcast

Hannah Dannecker – Empowering Women in a Male-Dominated Industry

Hannah Dannecker – Empowering Women in a Male-Dominated Industry
See More Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Pay Equity?

How we define pay equity has evolved over recent years. Pay equity today ensures equal compensation for comparable roles, emphasizing internal fairness, external competitiveness, and clear, transparent communication. From the employee perspective, we're seeing them view pay equity through a broader lens. Yes, employees want to know that they are being paid fairly, but now they also want assurances that everyone else in their company is paid fairly, too.

How Does Equity Pay Work?

Pay equity processes ensure employees are compensated fairly based on the value of their work, regardless of factors like gender, race, or other personal characteristics. This involves assessing roles for comparable responsibilities, skills, and qualifications, conducting regular pay audits to identify disparities, and aligning compensation with job market standards. Transparent pay communication and consistent reviews help maintain fairness and compliance with pay equity laws.

How to Do a Pay Equity Analysis?

To conduct a pay equity analysis, start by defining the scope, collecting employee data (job titles, pay rates, and demographics), and grouping comparable roles. Analyze pay gaps using statistical methods, investigate causes, and address unjustified disparities through adjustments and policy changes. Learn how you can easily and effectively do this with CompAnalyst Pay Equity Suite.

Why Is Pay Equity Important?

Paying equitably and fairly offers both ethical and business advantages. Fairly compensated employees tend to be more productive and innovative, while employers who prioritize pay equity foster an environment that attracts and retains top talent. In recent years pay equity and pay transparency have become the law.

What Should Be Included in a Pay Equity Audit?

A pay equity audit should include employee data, job classifications, current compensation policies, a detailed analysis of pay gaps, a root cause analysis, an action plan for improvement, and a compliance review to ensure adherence to legal standards.

How Big Is the Gender Pay Gap?

On average, in the U.S., women make 83 cents for every dollar men earn. The gender wealth gap is even worse, as women have only 32% of the wealth men have accumulated.

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