Pay equity is often perceived as a project that begins with an audit to measure potential pay gaps between employees. Pay disparities between workers doing the same job must be defensibly tied to compensable factors—experience, skills, location, and responsibilities—not race, gender, or other protected characteristics.

However, it is better to think of pay equity as an ongoing strategic program to attract, retain, and engage talent that ensures fair pay through continuous monitoring. Because organizations are always changing, pay equity needs to be assessed with:

• Every hire
• Every pay raise
• Every promotion
• Every change to the organization

With Payscale’s pay equity software, you can track insights on pay equity trends within your organization so you can identify key areas of risk, understand where pay gaps are explained by non-monetary factors, and track remedial actions and progress toward pay equity where they aren’t.

• Monitor controlled and uncontrolled pay gaps
• Quickly check whether pay is fair comparatively across cohorts
• Model the pay increases required for remediation at the employee level
• Assess the impact of pay raises on pay equality as part of compensation planning

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The conversation around pay transparency has been largely driven by recent legislation being enacted in key cities and states across the country including New York City, Colorado, and California. While this legislation is driven by local governments, it’s effects are far-reaching with many of the laws requiring employers to post ranges even if they have just a few employees in that state or city. The team at Payscale has made it our mission to track this legislation and help our customers adapt to it.