Fair, equitable pay: impossible ideal or a HR priority we finally need to practise?

Covid-19 and now the cost of living crisis has widened continuing, persistent and unjustified pay gaps that remain evident in even our largest and most reputable employers.  In this new HR Network paper written by IES Principal Associate Dr Duncan Brown, we look at the issue of how organisations can implement fairer and more productive reward strategies and practices.

Duncan argues optimistically, supported by a wide range of IES research, that the post-pandemic economy has also driven far more employers to rethink and redesign their austerity-driven employment and reward policies of the last decade. The paper considers the mechanics of pay setting, the fluctuations around what constitutes ‘fair pay’, the importance of measuring pay gaps and offers a raft of practical steps for employers to close pay gaps and make pay fairer.