Compensation transparency

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Wage transparency, salary compensation, and compensation transparency generally, involves disclosure of employee compensation amounts, either among other employees in an organization, to owners, to government regulators, or to the public.

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Some jurisdictions have pay transparency laws intended to prevent discrimination based on demographics like gender or race. These laws require job listings to give a salary range for the position. To eliminate unintentional discrimination and treat employees more ethically, some organizations have adopted radical transparency, disclosing all employees' compensation internally and either equalizing pay for similar positions or justifying differences.

Some jurisdictions mandate disclosure of executive compensation to shareholders, in an attempt to reduce excessive compensation.

According to a 2024 review of existing evidence, pay transparency within a firm tends to narrow coworker wage gaps, but also incentivizes employers to bargain more aggressively to keep average wages down. Within-firm pay transparency also reveals to workers pay differences across different levels of seniority, which "can lead to more accurate and more optimistic beliefs about earnings potential, increasing employee motivation and productivity." Cross-firm pay transparency overall strengthens the power of workers against employers, as workers are more likely to seek higher-paying jobs, and negotiate higher pay at their current job. [1]

Compensation transparency by country

Canada

Under Ontario's Employment Standards Act it is illegal for an employer to "intimidate, dismiss or otherwise penalize an employee or threaten to do so" because the worker has disclosed their own wages or because the worker has inquired about the wages of another worker for the purposes of determining the employer's compliance with the law's Equal Pay for Equal Work provisions. [2]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the Equality Act 2010 protects the rights of workers to discuss pay and forbids employers from prohibiting a worker's "relevant pay disclosure". [3]

United States

Federal law

In the United States, the National Labor Relations Act protects the right of employees to discuss compensation without retaliation from their employer. [4]

By state or territory

California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Washington have passed compensation transparency laws as of 2023. Some US cities also have compensation transparency laws, including New York City. [5]

New York enacted a pay transparency law in 2023. The law requires employers to publicly disclose job salary ranges. [5]

Maryland's Equal Pay for Equal Work law states that "an employer may not prohibit an employee from inquiring about, discussing, or disclosing the wages of an employee or another employee". [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other entity, pays the other, the employee, in return for carrying out assigned work. Employees work in return for wages, which can be paid on the basis of an hourly rate, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the type of work an employee does, the prevailing conditions of the sector and the bargaining power between the parties. Employees in some sectors may receive gratuities, bonus payments or stock options. In some types of employment, employees may receive benefits in addition to payment. Benefits may include health insurance, housing, disability insurance. Employment is typically governed by employment laws, organisation or legal contracts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salary</span> Form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equal Pay Act of 1963</span> United States labor law of the New Frontier program

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States labor law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex. It was signed into law on June 10, 1963, by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. In passing the bill, Congress stated that sex discrimination:

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Employment Relations Act 2000</span> Statute of the Parliament of New Zealand

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938</span> United States wage law

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 29 U.S.C. § 203 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppressive child labor". It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage. The Act was enacted by the 75th Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paycheck Fairness Act</span> Proposed law to address the gender pay gap

The Paycheck Fairness Act is a proposed United States labor law that would add procedural protections to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of an effort to address the gender pay gap in the United States. A Census Bureau report published in 2008 stated that women's median annual earnings were 77.5% of men's earnings. Recently this has narrowed, as by 2018, this was estimated to have decreased to women earning 80-85% of men's earnings. One study suggests that when the data is controlled for certain variables, the residual gap is around 5-7%; the same study concludes that the residual is because "hours of work in many occupations are worth more when given at particular moments and when the hours are more continuous. That is, in many occupations, earnings have a nonlinear relationship with respect to hours."

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Authored by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, the California Fair Pay Act is an amendment to the existing California labor laws that protects employees who want to discuss about their co-workers' wages as well as eliminating loopholes that allowed employers to justify inequalities in pay distribution between opposite sexes. The bill is an extension of the California Equal Pay Act of 1949, which was originally intended to enforce equal pay.

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The Transparency in Wage Structures Act is a 2017 German law enacted to promote pay parity between men and women. The law was strongly supported by Manuela Schwesig, the Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. The law seeks to guarantee equal pay for equal work and provides mechanisms to enforce this, as well as reporting requirements for employers with more than 500 employees.

References

  1. Cullen, Zoë (2024). "Is Pay Transparency Good?". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 38 (1): 153–180. doi:10.1257/jep.38.1.153. ISSN   0895-3309.
  2. "Employment Standards Act, 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 41". Government of Ontario . Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  3. "Equality Act 2010". legislation.gov.uk . Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  4. Your Right to Discuss Wages
  5. 1 2 "New York pay transparency law drives change across the U.S." MSN . Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  6. "Equal Pay for Equal Work - Employment Standards Service (ESS)". Maryland Department of Labor . Retrieved 2023-10-08.