PAY DISCRIMINATION
Two-thirds of employers plan to conduct equal pay reviews
Two-thirds of organisations surveyed by e-reward.co.uk plan to carry out an equal pay review to ensure that they are not short-changing women employees.
According to the results of the e-reward.co.uk survey, plans to conduct a review are being made by 73% of responding organisations with 500 or more employees and 56% of those with less than 500 employees. Overall, 66% of respondents plan to conduct an equal pay review.
The Equal Opportunities Commission has set ambitious targets for employers to carry out equal pay reviews: it wants half of large employers with more than 500 workers to have carried out a pay audit by the end of 2003, and a quarter of the smaller organisations to have done so by December 2005.
A considerable proportion of organisations in the e-reward.co.uk survey without a formal job evaluation scheme had not considered the equal value implications. It is evident that many employers are confident that their existing pay structures promote and maintain equal pay - even though they have not carried out a full audit.
What are equal pay reviews?
The Equal Opportunities Commission states than an equal pay review "involves comparing the pay of women and men doing equal work, investigating the causes of any gender pay gaps and closing any gaps that cannot be satisfactorily explained on grounds other than sex".
The EOC's Code of Practice on Equal Pay says that an internal pay review is "the most appropriate method of ensuring that a pay system delivers equal pay free from sex bias".
While employers are not required by statute to conduct equal pay reviews, only a review can ensure that pay systems are free from sex bias.
Want to know more?
Title: "What is happening in job evaluation today: a large-scale survey", E-research, issue no. 7, January 2003, published by e-reward.co.uk.
Methodology: The e-reward.co.uk survey, which looks in detail at the management of pay and grading systems, is based on information supplied by senior HR and reward professionals in 236 organisations employing 1.29 million people. It was conducted in November 2002.
Survey sample: Our research covers a broad range of sectors, with a particularly strong response from consultancy, business services, professional services (13% of respondents), and telecom, IT, software, e-commerce (13%). Some 17% of all returns are from employers in the public services and voluntary sectors, while 83% are from private sector organisations.
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Posted 19 January 2003