Some solutions to the gender pay gap.
The gender pay gap can be partially explained by women’s so-called choices, and partially explained by pure discrimination. This is a complicated problem, the solutions will be multi-faceted and take time. But it seems to me there are two things workplaces should implement right now that would create benefits for the whole workplace, in addition to improving gender equity.
Two Solutions
1) Make pay transparent.
In blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act, Republicans pointed out that it is already illegal for employers to discriminate against women. This is true, and it is true that this is vey difficult to enforce. The Supreme Court denied Lily Ledbetter the right to sue her employer for decades of pay discrimination because she didn’t know she was being discriminated against at the time. How would she have known? As in most private places of employment, pay in her workplace was a personal matter. The only way she could have found out what her male colleagues were making was if they told her. Which, unsurprisingly, they did not do.
Although it is illegal, many (most?) employers have an explicit policy or implicit culture that prohibits or discourages workers from discussing their pay with each other. In fact, my mother-in-law just read this article and was surprised to learn that her employer’s prohibition against discussing pay is actually illegal. This is a hard law to enforce. But creating peer-pressure amongst companies, as The Gap has started to do, to make salaries transparent could be much more powerful than a law.
Making pay transparent would help eliminate unfairness and inefficiency of many kinds.
If an employer doesn’t want to reveal its pay, it probably has something to hide. It may not be intentional discrimination or gender discrimination—perhaps the employer is paying some people too much or too little for historical reasons that have built up over time and are difficult to correct. It is easier to let those blemishes hang around in the dark. Shining a light on actual pay practices makes it difficult to let unjustified discrepancies continue. It might be uncomfortable to introduce pay transparency in a culture that is secretive about pay, but it is possible. The pay-off (so to speak!) is more fairness and trust as well as a better match between each employee’s value and their compensation.
Transparent pay pairs well with results-based evaluation. Public agencies are examples of transparent pay without results-based evaluation. Everyone can look up everyone else’s pay, so discrimination can’t hide in the dark; but pay is based on years of education and years of employment, which often don’t correlate to performance.
2) Use results-based evaluation.
The best workplaces encourage employees to provide results, not simply to log hours or to be male. It takes more work on the employer’s part to clearly define expectation and track performance, but employers who do the work produce a higher-performing workplace where everyone knows who the stars are, what it takes to be a star, and how much they will get paid if they make themselves a star. That’s a much surer road to motivated employees than the strategy of paying men more and crossing your fingers, hoping that your prejudices are correct.
Two Non-Solutions
1) Just wait and let it correct itself.
While the pay gap steadily decreased between 1972 and 1988, progress has slowed, and even reversed itself twice this decade. The gap has only narrowed by one percentage point since 2001. At that rate, it will take three centuries to eliminate the gap. I, for one, don’t want to sit on my hands until 2314.
2) Teach women to negotiate better.
Women are less likely to negotiate for a higher salary. Unfortunately, women are not just being timid: they are being savvy. For a man, negotiating usually results in a higher salary, but women are likely to be penalized for negotiating: employers don’t want to work with them, and may even withdraw a job offer. So while the negotiation gap is certainly frustrating, closing it will not close the pay gap.
