Despite the progress in addressing compensation, less attention is currently being paid to determine whether there are any pay disparities in health care, well-being and retirement benefits. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Employers are making strides to pay workers of all ethnicities and genders equitably, according to WorldatWork's Pay Equity Practices and Priorities Survey.

The nonprofit polled more than 350 of its members–compensation managers at large employers–and found that a significant majority (79 percent) are now conducting gender pay gap analyses as a standard practice, and nearly the same percentage (71 percent) are making broad pay equity analyses standard practice.

Over half (55 percent) are executing remediation strategies, and 52 percent are evaluating their remediation options. Just 9 percent of the respondents say they are not considering do gender pay gap analysis.

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Pay equity is increasingly becoming top of mind for HR professionals, says WorldatWork president and CEO Scott Cawood. "It's not just about salary, though. Organizations are expanding their understanding of areas where potential bias or gaps may exist and they are working to address issues linked to the concerns around any personal attribute being used in any process that ultimately impacts salary, including hiring, promotion and feedback systems."

Indeed, the vast majority of respondents are now addressing or plan to address pay equity within their recruitment practices (88 percent), individual pay determination decisions (83 percent), hiring practices (83 percent), individual pay determination decisions (82 percent) and selection practices (81 percent).

However, less attention is currently being paid to determine whether there are any pay disparities in health care, well-being and retirement benefits (58 percent); paid time off and flexibility benefits (55 percent) and dependent/elder care benefits (35 percent).

"While the survey reveals positive movement towards pay equity remediation, benefits programs are receiving the least amount of attention when looking for potential biases that may contribute to pay disparities," Cawood says.

"Understanding of how benefits programming can skew to attract or serve one group over another is beginning to emerge."

More broadly, in an effort to identify or reduce potential biases, respondents are routinely looking at market data (73 percent) and rexamining their performance management practices (69 percent).

"The finding about performance management practices is intriguing," Cawood says. "One-third (32 percent) of organizations are not looking at performance management practices in the context of pay equity, despite the often subjective nature of those programs."

However, employers need to realize that the level of scrutiny for all pay-related systems will only increase in the next few years, he says.

"In the future, performance management programs will have to adhere to updated frameworks in order to be bias-free," Cawood says. "One We know, anecdotally, that organizations that do look at performance management in the pay equity context are experimenting with removing many pay practices to prevent or reduce bias."

Read more: 

• Gender pay gap stems from lack of access to high-paying jobs
• Here's how you can proactively address gender pay inequity
• Employees welcome pay gap disclosures, as long as it doesn't affect them