If you own a business, you owe it to your employees to ensure fair wages. It's not enough to pay comparable wages across industrial standards. That merely means that you're paying your employees in the same range as other employers are offering for the same work. You also need to consider pay gaps where your salaries are concerned. Pay gaps exist when gender discrepancies exist within a company. Studies show that women make about $0.81 for every dollar that their male counterparts make. Luckily, there are ways to end the pay gap. Here are three steps you need to take to end the pay gap in your company.
Start With a Pay Gap Analysis
When it comes to eliminating the pay gap, the first thing you need to do is perform an analysis of the data. A pay gap analysis will allow you to identify the issues that cause the discrepancy in pay. Thorough pay gap studies should look at statistical information for each of your employees. This should include age, education, experience, and gender. Two aspects that you should include in the analysis are starting pay and job descriptions.
Starting Pay
If you're going to perform a pay gap analysis, analyze the starting pay you offer your employees. You can adjust starting pay for education and experience. But, starting pay should not be adjusted for gender.
Job Descriptions
When closing the pay gap, make your analysis detailed. Look at job descriptions. If you have graphic designers in more than one department, you need to look at the job descriptions. If the job descriptions are the same for all departments, look at the pay. The pay should be the same - regardless of employee gender.
Make Meaningful Changes
If you're working towards closing the pay gap in your company, make meaningful changes. This is especially important where performance reviews are concerned. Men are more likely to be vocal about the raises they expect to receive. Unfortunately, that often leaves women out of the negotiations phase of salary increases. Level the playing field for your performance reviews. Start the process by offering across-the-board increases based on experience, years in service, and education.
Improve Training Opportunities
Finally, if you want to eliminate the pay gap in your company, work to improve training opportunities. Women often lose out on advancement because they can't work around training opportunities. Improve opportunities by offering seminars during work hours. That way, employees have an equal opportunity to participate; regardless of after-hours responsibilities.
