Over the years, various acts and policies have been rolled out to reduce pay inequality, like Minimum Wages Act (1948), Equal Remuneration Act (1976), MGNERA (2005), EPIC by UN, and Maternity Benefit Act (2017) amongst others. But unfortunately, even after so many efforts, working women across the globe have been penalized based on gender.
The discrimination is in the form of physical harassment, improper maternity leave, pay inequality, or lack of growth opportunities, to name a few. Worse, Pay-inequality post-pandemic has been a gruesome concern for female professionals as the gender pay gap has significantly widened. Regrettably, it means whatever progress was achieved by implementing the acts & policies mentioned above in reducing this gap has gone in vain.
As a women-centric organization, See & Recruit has always favored and practiced pay equality for its female employees. Our COO, Mrs.Phalguni Rathod, has been a successful fempreneur for over 16 years. She firmly believes in women’s empowerment and implements policies to uplift the female workforce, profusely reflecting our work culture. Let us now look at some tips employers must consider that help reduce the Pay Equality gap.
- Keeping Pay Scale Transparent: Creating a transparent compensation system supports the reduction in gender-pay gaps. Whereas secrecy around compensation often creates tension & unhealthy competition among employees. Thus, promoting policies and a work environment that normalize discussion over pay with colleagues should be encouraged.
- Organizing Pay Audits: Conducting routine pay audits helps highlight and eliminate salary discrepancies. During these audits, the employer & HRs anatomize everything from CTC, bonuses, additional allowances, pensions, etc., for each employee. Hence, understanding the gender pay gap and creating strategies to reduce it becomes easy.
- Evaluating Employee Compensations Regularly: Formulating a compensation review cycle different from a performance review on an annual basis can help the employer determine a change in the cost of living for their employees. It also helps to analyze competitive salary ranges as per market standards. By doing so, one can get clarity regarding employees’ desired figures and the budget.
- No Salary Disparity, Especially Before New Joiners: When looking for new hires, posting salary ranges prompts the firm’s fair policy preventing unjustified disparities between employees. Typically, new hires are paid more or less than the existing team. Therefore, such a step reflects positively on the firm rather than keeping the compensation under wraps and discreet.
- Create A Positive Culture: Healthy work culture matters! It leads to accelerated retention ratio, efficiency, productivity, and diminished attrition rate. Therefore, the focus should be on creating an inclusive yet diverse work culture and enhancing employee engagement. The idea is to build a fun place to place. Remember, every working professional thrives in a workplace where your efforts are recognized and your work is valued.
