| PAY DISCRIMINATION Awareness of equal pay problems remains low If the business community really wants to avoid the introduction of compulsory pay audits then employers need to recognise that pay discrimination may exist within their organisations. And they will need to take action to address any problems of wage bias. That is the stark warning to emerge from a recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The survey of 1,900 human resource practitioners shows that awareness of equal pay problems among organisations is low. What’ s more, the CIPD found that a significant number of employers do not have an equal pay policy, and even some of the more enlightened employers do not communicate their policies to employees. Most organisations do not believe they have a pay problem Six in ten respondents (61%) believe that their organisations do not have an equal pay problem, yet only 38% of the sample said their organisation had carried out an equal pay audit. Employers slow to rectify problems Even employers that recognised problems of pay bias in their wage systems were slow to rectify them. Among those respondents that reported an equal pay concern, just 34% said they had taken action to solve the problem. Surprisingly, as many as 30% of respondents did not know whether any action had been taken and 36% said they had not taken any action despite the presence of potentially costly equal pay problems. Says the CIPD: Organisations were most likely to change practice because of union or employee pressure. They were least likely to have made changes as a result of legal action or because of organisation values. A final word If employers want to avoid more legislative action being taken by government then they need to recognise that equal pay problems may exist within their organisations and that in such circumstances, action will be needed to address those problems. Failure to do so could lead to government patience running dry and organisations being forced to treat the issues with more serious thought. — Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Want to know more? Title: Employers and Equal Pay, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Methodology: The data for the survey was collected in October and November 2000 as part of the Reward Group/CIPD 2000 salary survey. Survey sample: There were 1,900 responses from HR practitioners in both the public and private sectors. Availability: Contact the CIPD in London, tel: 020 8971 9000, email: cipd@cipd.co.uk. Visit the Institute's web site at . . . Posted 6 August 2001 |