NYC’s Pay Transparency Law Has Started: Here Are Three Additional Ways Your Company Can Promote Pay Equity

New York City employers with at least four employees are now?required ?to include salary ranges in job postings. New York City is not the first place to adopt these laws: Colorado, California and Washington all have similar laws. A wealth of research indicates that salary transparency is a powerful tool to bring about more pay parity when it comes to?underrepresented racial groups ?and?women . Popular job search website Indeed recently?developed ?a pay transparency tool to help job seekers understand salary information related to job roles. The calls for greater equity and justice in our world and our workplaces can no longer be ignored; pay equity is a large part of that. New York City is not the first nor will it be the last to adopt these types of laws. It’s imperative for workplaces to think about how the desire for more transparency will impact the future. This article examines three ways to promote pay equity in your workplace.

1.?Share employee salary ranges. Why wait for a mandate to update? In addition to posting salary ranges on job postings, think about sharing employee salaries on an open forum that employees can access.?Buffer ?is a social media management startup that has, since 2013, shared employee salaries on their website for the world to see and access. They use a “formula-based approach” to determine compensation and share employee salary as well as the employee location and their specific role within the company. Think about incorporating something similar in your workplace. If the idea of sharing pay information publicly presents issues, think about ways to share it internally so employees have access to it. Providing employees with this information can dispel any misconceptions they have about pay. A large?majority ?of workers want pay transparency and implementing transparent pay and reward systems in the workplace can build and strengthen employee trust.

2.?Conduct frequent pay audits. According to the?Society for Human Resource Management ?(SHRM), 58% of U.S. companies conduct pay equity reviews. Some recommendations that SHRM encourages includes proactive self-evaluations of pay and increased conversations about pay expectations with employees. Despite the popular advice that women and racial minorities need to simply negotiate their salaries more to achieve pay equity, research indicates that both?women ?and?underrepresented racial groups ?do?negotiate their salaries but are less likely to get the salary they are requesting and experience negative consequences when they do so. Hire an expert in pay audits and analyses and have them conduct a pay review?annually . Don’t shy away from sharing with employees that pay audits are being conducted to let them know that there are steps being made to promote pay equity.

3.?Encourage salary sharing among employees. Organizations should encourage conversations about salary. Within society and different cultures around the world, talking about salary is still?taboo . Create opportunities for employees to have honest and transparent conversations about salary. Employees should be provided with support in the form of coaching and development and part of that should include guidance on how to open up conversations about salary and pay. According to a 2015?Glassdoor survey , 69% of working adults wished they had a better understanding about equitable pay for their job position. Part of the lure with employee unions is the idea that conversations about the “unmentionables” such as pay inequity are being had. Many organizations?discourage ?employees from having conversations about pay, which can contribute to inequities and a culture of secrecy. Rather than promoting a culture of gossip and misinformation, encouraging these types of conversations among employees and inviting candid discussions is essential for creating an equitable workplace.

This article was originally published in Forbes in October 2022.

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