In today’s evolving employment landscape, pay transparency is becoming increasingly important for businesses of all sizes. As more states implement pay transparency laws, companies are adapting to ensure they’re not only meeting legal requirements but also fostering a culture of fairness and equity by establishing pay ranges.

The Shift Towards Pay Transparency

The push for pay transparency has been driven by a combination of cultural shifts, and legal changes. Younger generations of workers expect transparency in pay, and more states have implemented pay transparency laws requiring employers to disclose compensation within job postings and/or when employees ask.

While some businesses may be adding pay ranges on a case-by-case basis, this ad hoc approach can lead to inconsistencies and potential issues down the line. Instead, you should consider building pay ranges for all current and future roles, ensuring pay aligns with the market and your overall compensation philosophy. Companies that are set up with comprehensive and consistent pay ranges in response to the shift toward pay transparency will also be better positioned to attract and retain top talent.

Lay the Foundation for Sustainable Growth

By establishing pay ranges, you’re setting the stage for scalable and equitable growth. This approach helps you avoid the need for temporary fixes and backtracking later on. Having pay ranges clearly defined impacts companies in meaningful ways that include:

  1. Compliance with pay transparency laws
    By proactively building a pay philosophy and ensuring that your salary ranges are consistent and compliant, you can avoid potential legal issues and fines associated with non-compliance.
  2. Better-quality candidates
    Job seekers are increasingly considering pay transparency when evaluating potential employers. By providing clear and competitive salary ranges, you can attract top talent to your organization.
  3. Ease of scalability and forecasting
    With well-defined pay ranges, you can reduce the workload on lean HR and recruiting teams who often must develop offers for each role on the spot or in reaction to negotiations. Those same pay ranges can be used by your finance team to help budget for future needs as your organization looks to scale.
  4. Ensuring pay equity
    Getting compensation right on day one is important for companies focused on pay equity. By using defined pay ranges and consistent guidelines to set compensation levels, you can reduce the biases that may come into play when setting compensation without guardrails.

Build Pay Ranges with Confidence

With Comp Management on the Sequoia People Platform, you have the tools to build pay ranges that are informed by real-time market data, leveled for every job in your org, and aligned to your compensation philosophy to keep pay competitive, equitable, and within budget.

Comp Management helps you not only manage your defined pay ranges, but you can share them when you need to — whether in a job posting or when requested by an employee.

As you begin building pay ranges, consider:

  1. What pay transparency regulations are relevant to your company?
  2. What’s the impact to your current employees?
  3. What should pay ranges be for new roles?
  4. How will you communicate ranges with consistency?

Learn more about how Comp Management from Sequoia can help you manage the ever-changing pay transparency landscape and more at www.sequoia.com/platform/compensation-management

Kyle Holm — As the VP, Total Rewards Advisory, Kyle is responsible for leading our team of Rewards professionals who ensure Sequoia clients have compensation programs that attract, motivate, and retain their employees. In his free time, Kyle enjoys spending time with his family, golfing and rooting for the Niners.