Editor’s Note

Fair is when no one enjoys an advantage that others couldn’t also enjoy, if given the same opportunity. Fairness in the workplace is just as important as it is anywhere else. Today, more than ever before, employees expect to be respected. However, how far have we come?

The pay gap issue has been in the media spotlight for some time now. How equitable is pay today among men and women? Not very. On average, the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that women make just 63% of what men make for the same work, and earn 50% less than men each year overall. In fact, The 2020 Global Gender Gap Report, released by the WEF, estimates that it will take 99.5 years for gender economic equality between men and women to be achieved around the world. Along with gender income disparity, women have also remained vastly underrepresented in leadership positions. Several countries are putting laws into effect to make pay more transparent and equitable. Though some gaps are closing, there is still much work to be done across.

Gone are the days when talented people waited patiently in the ranks until it was their “fair” turn to get promoted. For a rapidly increasing number of desirable employees, dangling the carrot of “better pay, some day” doesn’t work anymore. They want compensation that fairly reflects their skills and experience, now. If that isn’t possible in your company, don’t expect to keep these folks for long. So, how can you get ahead of the trends and build a compensation system that’s transparent, fair, and talent-attracting? 

To better understand the degree to which organizations are embracing pay equity--particularly with respect to offering compensation that is competitive, measurable, ethical and defendable-- HR.com’s HR Research Institute conducted an extensive study and wrote a full report, The State of Pay Equity 2020. Download the whitepaper in this issue. Also, in this edition, we have hand-selected a few articles that feature various issues related to pay equity.

What should you do to establish fair compensation practices that retain talented people? S. Chris Edmonds' article, How Should We Think About Fair Compensation In 2020? offers a practical solution. Read his article for more insights.

Even if you personally had a great year, your annual reward would likely suffer because the company didn’t do as well as expected. Now look at what happens in the same scenarios with your senior leadership team.  Were their reward payments, as a percentage of base salary, reduced like what happened with lower-level managers and individual contributors?  Did they take the same hit that you did? No. Now, why is that? Read Chuck Csizmar’s eye-opening article, The Dark Side Of Incentives to know more.

Tracey Smith's article, Companies Are Not Responsible For The Gender Pay Gap talks about why companies cannot be blamed for gender pay gaps. According to her, gender pay gap is driven primarily by career choices and aspiration levels for management and leadership positions.

In brief, this themed edition on pay equity, will take you through some pressing issues on ‘a lack of fairness’ we face in organizations today. We hope you enjoy reading the articles and send us your valuable comments and feedback.