Glass-Ceiling

The #MeToo movement has resurfaced interest around pay inequity by both gender and race. For companies looking to address such disparities, Littler Mendelson has released its Pay Equity Assessment Tool.

Built by the firm's analytics team, the tool crunches client data on employee compensation and demographics, like race, gender and state, to analyze for potential litigation risk against both federal and state laws. Using a dashboard that allows for filtering information by different categories, Littler attorneys consult clients to begin “proactively fixing” payment disparities “using tested legal strategies,” a press release noted.

So what are these legal strategies? Denise Visconti, employment attorney and office managing shareholder at Littler, told LTN that they're client dependent, though she noted that some might include “adjustments in pay at the fundamental level,” as well as reviewing a company's compensation strategies.

In measuring compensation differences among different demographics, the Pay Equity Assessment tool identifies differences deemed statistically significant while alerting whether they “reflect legitimate business considerations,” the release noted.

“The laws that are on the books currently … have some very specific requirements and defenses available to employers as to factors that could drive pay,” Visconti said. Among these are seniority, shift differentials, and geography. The tool, she added, evaluates whether employee pay is being driven by such factors, or whether others are at play.

To make information easier to digest, the tool relies on visuals like a color-coded map of the US that can be utilized to break down employment law, pay equity, and potential risk by factors like gender or race. It also allows a user to apply variables like education level, job title and prior work experience. Data can be dissected via a breakdown of the statistics utilized for the charts, and reports can be printed out.

The technology is only available to Littler clients. The firm declined to comment on pricing.

Pay inequity has been an issue in the US for decades and continues to persist. A 2017 American Association of University Women (AAUW) report noted that in 2016, women were paid 80 percent of what men were paid. The report also noted, “At the rate of change between 1960 and 2016, women are expected to reach pay equity with men in 2059,” though that “slow progress has stalled in recent years.”

Speaking at Brown University earlier this month, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “Pay equality is one of the biggest issues our nation faces,” the Associated Press reported. She also noted that pay inequality between women and men has remained largely the same since her own childhood.

Wage gaps by race persist as well. Data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute found that on average, a Hispanic worker was paid about 29 percent less hourly than a white worker. Black workers, on average, were paid nearly 27 percent less hourly than their white counterparts.

Some organizations claim to be taking steps to address such gaps. In January, Citigroup announced an effort to increase pay for minorities and women. A Citigroup blog announcing the effort said that the move supports the company's “efforts to attract and retain the best talent and reward performance consistent with our Leadership Standards.”

When it comes to addressing pay inequity, Aaron Crews, Littler's chief data analytics officer, said, “Generally speaking, most organizations want to do the right thing. And most who are going to go through the process of doing a pay equity assessment are trying to do the right thing in a way that makes business sense.”