Business pay equity best practices released

The average man working full-time and year-round in America makes $50,033.

The average woman working full-time and year-round in America makes $39,157.

That means a woman, on average, makes 78 cents for every dollar a man earns.

It’s 77 cents on the dollar in Missouri, and when part-time work is factored in, women in Missouri earned 65 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts.

According to the University of Missouri Institute for Public Policy, there are many factors for this.

"Two-thirds of minimum-wage workers are women, annual wage income for all women is lower than for all men. Also, female dominated professions, such as care-giving and hospitality, are often associated with lower wages than male dominated professions, such as engineering and computer science,” according to a report released on Monday.

The Women’s Foundation in Kansas City contracted with the institute to conduct research on best practices for reaching gender pay equity in Missouri.

The fight for equal pay has been going on for decades. The report states:

“The effort to use legislative tools to ensure equal pay for women has been ongoing for more than 100 years, starting when women began entering industrial jobs in the late 19^th century. In 1898, the federally appointed Industrial Commission started advocating for equal pay for women working the same factory jobs as men. During World War I, when women’s labor was vital to the war effort, the national War Labor Board (NWLB) mandated that, if women must undertake work normally done by men, they should earn equal pay for that work.”

From the information gathered, the Women’s Foundation is now sharing “best practices” for businesses in the public and private sector.

Here is a summary of those “best practices”:

          Employers should determine whether gender-based pay disparities exist

o   Conduct self-audits

o   Identify gender-based pay disparities

o   Be accountable for remediating disparities which are identified

         Re-evaluate the current pay system from an equity perspective

o   Evaluate compensation systems

o   Use standardized methodology

o   Consider non-wage compensation in evaluation

          Promote and ensure pay transparency

o   Make salary ranges by title public to job applicants

o   Implement policies to prohibit pay secrecy

o   Consider joint evaluation processes for pay raises and promotions

For the full report “Pay Equity Best Practices Guidelines” click here.