What was pay equity

On the federal level, two bills have been introduced since the mids, the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Fair Pay Act. The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would amend the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act of to provide more effective remedies to workers who are not being paid equal wages for doing equal work, was passed by the House of Representatives in the th and th Congresses.

Hearings on the bill were held March 11, in the Senate, but it was defeated by a vote on Nov. The Fair Pay Act would expand the Equal Pay Act's protections against wage discrimination to workers in equivalent jobs with similar skills and responsibilities, even if the jobs are not identical.

If you need more information on how to resolve a personal situation involving unfair pay, you can call:. The wage gap has narrowed by about 15 percentage points during the last 23 years, ranging from 62 percent in to 77 percent in Since , however, approximately 60 percent of the change in the wage gap is due to the fall in men's real earnings and only about 40 percent to the increase in women's wages.

At this rate of change, the Institute for Women's Policy Research estimates that it will take 50 years to close the wage gap.

Pay Equity Information. What is the legal status of pay equity? How large is the wage gap? Hasn't the wage gap closed considerably in recent years? Is it possible to compare different jobs? Yes, employers have used job evaluations for nearly a century to set pay and rank for different occupations within a company or organization. Today, two out of three workers are employed by firms that use some form of job evaluation. The federal government, the nation's largest employer, has a year old job evaluation system that covers nearly two million employees.

Who really needs pay equity? Women, people of color, and white men who work in jobs that have been undervalued due to race or sex bias need pay equity.

Many of these workers are the sole support for their families. Communicate regularly and honestly with employees about the metrics and their progress, to build trust within the entire organization. Train all decision-makers about the compensation system, and teach them how to properly document decisions.

Consider implementing standard pay ranges or guidelines for each position or job classification. Keep job descriptions up-to-date to ensure that the work being done and the skills required to do the work are accurately reflected. Pay Equity. You have successfully saved this page as a bookmark. OK My Bookmarks. Please confirm that you want to proceed with deleting bookmark. Delete Cancel. You have successfully removed bookmark. Delete canceled. Please log in as a SHRM member before saving bookmarks.

OK Proceed. Your session has expired. Please log in as a SHRM member. Cancel Sign In. Please purchase a SHRM membership before saving bookmarks. Ultimately, pay equity has far-reaching impacts on workforces, including significant ramifications on legal compliance, financial profitability, quality of workplace, and optimization of human resources.

By combining clean, accurate data with comprehensive annual and monthly analytic reporting and regulatory expertise, we help companies Achieve Pay Equity , every step of the way. Learn More.

Pay Equity. Pay equity An introduction to pay equity laws, enforcement, and recommended action steps. An introduction to pay equity A brief history of pay equity laws Pay equity and congress Pay equity and the United States Who is affected by pay equity Pay equity enforcement Pay equity costs Pay equity reporting requirements The value of pay equity auditing. An introduction to pay equity.

What is pay equity? Generally, pay equity focuses on ensuring those employees performing comparable work are receiving comparable compensation and that any differences in pay can be explained by legitimate job-related factors, such as: Skills, Effort, Responsibility, Experience, Education, etc. Learn more about pay equity. A brief history of pay equity laws. Pay equity and congress. The PFA, if passed, would make several significant changes to current law, including: Narrowing the ability of an employer to justify pay disparities based on a factor other than sex as a defense in court; Strengthening non-retaliation provisions for employees that disclose information about wages in certain circumstances; Mandating collection of compensation data by the EEOC, disaggregated by sex, race, and national origin; Prohibiting employers from relying on wage history in the determination of wages; Adding enhanced penalties for violations.

Pay equity and the United States. These new laws encompass objectives such as the following: Push equal pay requirements beyond federal law Ban the use of salary history to determine pay for new hires Prohibit hiring discrimination against applicants with criminal records "ban the box" These state and local laws are adding new complexity to complying with equal pay regulations and heighten the potential liability of organizations not providing their workers with equal pay.

Who is affected by pay equity? It is commonly understood that pay discrimination not only affects women, but members of racial and ethnic groups, among other backgrounds Pay equity also affects employers who have to comply with federal, state, and local pay equity regulations. Some of the potential risks for employers associated with disregarding pay equity laws include: Regulatory audits and penalties Lawsuits individual and class-action OFCCP enforcement and audits that may lead to lost government contracts Compliance challenges for multistate operations as more states and local jurisdictions pass pay equity laws with accompanying penalties for non-compliance Employee dissatisfaction, leading to lower productivity and higher turnover Adverse effect on talent acquisition and retention Poor public relations and brand image.

Pay equity enforcement. OFCCP requirements for employers can include: Preparation of Affirmative Action Programs AAPs Retention, documentation, and analysis of applicant, hire, promotion, termination, and compensation data Preservation of all personnel or employment records; time frame depending on size of workforce Inclusion of equal employment opportunity statement in job advertisements Posting of anti-discrimination and pay transparency notices Permitting access to compensation data to OFCCP for the purpose of conducting compliance evaluations and complaint investigations The U.

We encourage organisations to diagnose the status of pay equity within their workplace, set goals, and take practical steps to improve pay equity as part of their gender equality strategy. Below is a summary of actions an organisation can take to improve pay equity. These steps have been pulled from our comprehensive Guide to gender pay equity. For more in depth information on each of these steps, please review this guide.

We recommend organisations get familiar with the key concepts and issues surrounding pay equity and equal pay.

It is important to understand the 'what' and 'why' before getting to the 'how'. To achieve internal support, organisations need to be able to quantify and communicate why addressing pay equity and gender equality more broadly is going to be beneficial for their workplace and business. The following checklist outlines actions individual managers can take to ensure they are actively involved in the removal of gender bias from pay and performance decisions.

A critical step in taking action to address and improve pay equity in your organisation is to review the data, identify any instances of unequal pay and understand what is driving any gender pay gaps.

We have developed a gender pay gap calculator to assist organisations to identify and analyse the causes of the various types of organisational gender pay gaps. Note: The calculator is an excel workbook. You may also need to enable macros. When that the problem is understood and diagnosed, your organisation will be in a position to strategise and take action. For detailed list of potential actions, please check out the Guide to gender pay equity. Ensure your organisation carries out job evaluations and grading processes in a gender-inclusive way.

See our Guide to Australian standards on gender-inclusive job evaluation. Embed gender pay equity into your organisation's remuneration policy or create one from scratch if your organisation does not have one. See our Quick guide to designing an equitable remuneration policy.

It is important to track progress against the goals and targets set. From there, you will know whether any areas require refinement. Pay equity is something organisations need to maintain, monitor and continually improve on. In collaboration with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Dentons has developed this briefing note which outlines the legal framework related to pay equity. This briefing note also outlines key considerations for organisations in managing their legal risks at each of the six stages of the pay equity journey.

Awards and enterprise agreements are common methods of setting pay for organisations. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics ABS confirms that gender pay gaps are less prevalent when pay is set by an award or collective agreement. This guide will help you diagnose the status of pay equity in your organisation, set goals, and take practical steps to improve pay equity as part of your gender equality strategy.

The Agency has developed the gender pay gap calculator to assist employers to identify and analyse the causes of gender pay gaps within their own organisation. To support organisations in adopting the standards, the WGEA has worked with a committee of job evaluation and equity specialists to produce a guide to the Australian Standards on gender-inclusive job evaluation and grading.

All organisations, regardless of size, benefit from a remuneration policy, whether remuneration is set by award, enterprise agreement or common law contract.