THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS TOOLKIT: Transparency in Pay and Promotions
THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS TOOLKIT All of the Chapters so the Women in Business Toolkit can be found online on the Women in Business Toolkit section of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Website along with an online version of this document. Click the links below or see www.Birmingham-Chamber.com/WIBToolkit for more information.
Having a family and caring for dependents
Promoting Best Practice Mentoring and Sponsorship
Maternity Leave and Pay
Unconscious Bias Training
Paternity Leave and Pay
Transparency in Pay and Promotions
Adoption Leave and Pay Shared Parental Leave and Pay The Right to Request Flexible Working
Promoting Diversity Through Recruitment Flexible Working
Statutory Parental Leave
Diversity Policies and Strategies
Your Rights in the Workplace
Making the Case
Discrimination, Informal and Formal Grievances and The Equality Act (2010)
Making the Case: How to Construct a Business Case and Useful Statistics
Taking a Case to Employment Tribunal
INTRODUCTION: This handy little guide offers you some concise and, we hope, highly practical and useful information on transparency in pay and promotions. If you like the sound of transparency in pay and promotions check out the „Making the Case‟ chapter of the Women in Business Toolkit for lots of helpful advice and statistics to help you make the case to your employer. For more information click on the link on the left-hand page or go to the Women in Business Section of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce website: www.Birmingham-Chamber.com/WIBToolkit.
Connecting you to opportunity... This guide, brought to you by the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, is part of the Women in Business Toolkit. This toolkit aims to help inform and empower women and encourage best practice in businesses, helping make the UK a forward thinking, attractive place to work. Whilst useful and informative, it does not aim to provide encyclopaedic knowledge or in-depth legal advice about the topics in question, merely an introductory account. If you have any questions about any of the topics covered in this document please do speak to your HR department/the member of staff responsible for this area or seek professional advice. The Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce features some of the UK‟s oldest and largest Chambers. It has nearly 3,000 member companies that employ over 200,000 plus affiliate organisations representing 15,000 people. It offers extensive services to industry and commerce, having served the interests of business for nearly three centuries, promoting trade locally, nationally and internationally.
There were...
Claims accepted by employment tribunals between April 2011 and March 2012...
28,800 cases concerning equal pay
3,700 cases related to age discrimination
4,800 cases concerning race discrimination
10,800 cases related to sex discrimination
Female graduates entering the labour market earn ...
On average than their equally qualified male peers Over their lifetime, the average female executive will earn
LESS than a male counterpart following an identical career path In 2012 CMI found that male managers were awarded bonuses
as their female counterparts
Women earn...
AN HOUR LESS ON AVERAGE than men
WHAT IS TRANSPARENCY IN PAY AND PROMOTIONS? Under the Equality Act (2010) employees are legally allowed to ask each other about their relative levels of pay. However, even in today‟s workplace, discussing each other's salaries is largely taboo. But, given the continuing problems associated with equal pay and discrepancies in bonuses across employees apparently doing the same level of work, at bit of transparency can bring a whole lot of benefits. Businesses can help by being more transparent in levels of pay. This can take a variety of different forms:
Some organisations choose to publish the annual salaries and bonuses of those working in top positions. Some publish the average salaries and bonuses paid to employees at each level (Director, Manager, Entry Level etc) Some publish the standard metrics by which they calculate all salaries. Some even go as far as to make information on all employees’ salaries available.
Whether they make the information publically available or hold it on their intranet or internal systems also varies company by company. Being transparent about why promotions are awarded can also be beneficial for companies. Many larger companies already operate processes aimed at being open about why promotions are given. These involve simple mechanisms such as:
Offering all staff the opportunity to apply for internal positions before appointing. Offering detailed feedback to unsuccessful applicants. Offering general statistics on the diversity of senior employees.
WHY MIGHT I WANT IT? One of the many reasons that are frequently cited for why the gender pay gap continues to exist is the fact that women tend to ask for less in wage negotiations. If employees are aware of what their colleagues are earning they may feel more able to request that their pay matches it, or if they can demonstrate that they are performing above the curve, exceeds it. It can also help foster a more open and trusting environment (where pay levels appear to be appropriately set) and/or create dialogue around why certain individuals are paid significantly more or less than their peers. Where managers find themselves asked these questions they can offer a useful opportunity to coach staff members on what they need to improve upon in order to achieve a higher wage. They can also lead to companies reassessing their pay procedures and tackling problems with unfairly assigned pay. In short, it can take conversations about pay from mutterings and rumour out into the open, offering opportunities to build trust and encourage organisational learning. It can also help ensure that employers do not leave themselves open to potential fair pay or discrimination claims in the future as they have the information to challenge negative practices before they become ingrained or discriminatory. Click here for the Women in Business Toolkit Chapter on Discrimination, Informal and Formal Grievances and The Equality Act (2010) and Click here for the chapter on Taking a Case to Employment Tribunal for more information. In terms of being transparent about why promotions are awarded this too can boost trust and offer opportunities to learn and develop as staff see appointments are made on merit and unsuccessful applicants are given the opportunity to learn from their feedback.
HOW CAN I ASK FOR IT? Employers do not have offer this level of transparency, is still a best practice activity. However, many may consider it if you can make a good case for why they should. To begin, have a chat with your line manager or the relevant member of staff about transparency in your organisation. Some of this information may already be available on request. If not, and your employer needs some convincing you may want to offer to put together a business case for why they should consider being more transparent in levels of pay or awarding promotions. A business case is a formal, written document designed to encourage a decision maker to take a particular course of action. For more information on how to write a business case and some useful statistics and key lines of argument you can include please click here or see the ‘Making the Caseâ€&#x; Chapter of the Women in Business Toolkit on the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce website www.BirminghamChamber.com/WIBToolkit.
CASE STUDY: Transparency in Pay
Name: Data.gov.uk Organisation: HM Government Policy: Offers information on levels of pay for all positions in Government departments
The UK Government is currently taking big steps towards releasing Open Data. One aspect of this approach is the publishing of “organograms”. Organograms are illustrations of the structure, job roles and approximate pay levels of members of staff in Government departments. The information is extensive, covering the levels of pay from Department Secretary to Directors down to junior posts. The contact details of
senior post holders are also included. It is the view of Government that this level of transparency improves accountability. If you would like your organisation to consider offering transparency in levels of pay it will be worth highlighting the data.gov.uk website as an example of what this may look like in practice. For an example of an “organogram” click here or visit www.data.gov.uk.
JARGON BUSTER: DISCRIMINATION Treating someone less favourably than others because they have a particular characteristic (e.g. they are disabled).
FAIR PAY CLAIM If your organisation is paying individual employees working in roles that require the same level of knowledge, experience and quality of work different rates of pay there may be scope for employees to bring a Fair Pay claim at employment tribunal. This is particularly true if the organisation is discriminating (either intentionally or unintentionally) along gender, race or other protected characteristic lines (e.g. the directors in an organisation are 90% male, the 10% female directors are paid notably less than the average for the males).
USEFUL LINKS: Government Equalities Office: Think, Act, Report https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/creating-a-fairer-and-moreequal-society/supporting-pages/think-act-report Think, Act, Report provides a simple step-by-step framework to help companies think about gender equality in their workforces, particularly in relation to recruitment, retention, promotion and pay. It also offers advice and statistics on equal pay and transparency in levels of pay. EHRC: Equal Pay, Where Next? Toolkit http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/tools-equalpay/pay-related-research-and-inquiry-reports/equal-pay-where-next/ This section of the EHRC website offers lots of useful information and advice on equal pay including guidance on how to conduct an equal pay audit and how to approach discussing pay with colleagues. ACAS: Equal Pay http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1811 This section of the ACAS website offers advice and guidance on equal pay and what to do if you feel you are being discriminated against.
SOURCE OF STATISTICS
There were...
Claims accepted by employment tribunals between April 2011 and March 2012... Ministry of Justice (2012) Employment Tribunal Statistics 20l1-2012
28,800 cases concerning equal pay
3,700 cases related to age discrimination
4,800 cases concerning race discrimination
10,800 cases related to sex discrimination
Female graduates entering the labour market earn ...
On average than their equally qualified male peers HECSU (2013) Future Track
Over their lifetime, the average female executive will earn
LESS than a male counterpart following an identical career path ExpertHR (2013) National Salary Survey [Online] Accessed 09 October 2013
Women earn...
AN HOUR LESS ON AVERAGE than men
In 2012 CMI found that male managers were awarded bonuses
as their female counterparts ExpertHR (2012) National Salary Survey [Online] Accessed 09 October 2013
Fawcett Society (2013) Equal Pay [Online] [Accessed 09 October 2013]
THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS TOOLKIT: WE NEED YOU
We want to make sure that the Women in Business Toolkit stays as up to date and relevant as possible. To do this we need your support: Are there any chapters that you think are missing? Do you have experience of any of the topics included in the toolkit? Could you offer a case study? If the answer is yes to any of the above please get in touch using the contact details on the back of this document. We look forward to hearing from you.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Henrietta Brealey, Policy Advisor Chamber House 75 Harborne Road Birmingham B15 3DH H.Brealey@Birmingham-Chamber.com 0121 607 1786