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Ever fall short of someone’s expectations? Chances are, your organization might be doing just that when it comes to pay transparency, according to a new survey from consulting firm Mercer.
According to the survey, which was conducted last spring and includes responses from 1,160 participants representing 1,144 companies headquartered in 45 countries, “pay transparency is quickly becoming a basic requirement for organizations across the world.” Companies feel pressure from both regulators and the workforce to be up-front about how much they’re compensating employees, Mercer noted.
The results illuminate this trend: Three-quarters of respondents said compliance was a “key driver” for their organization’s pay transparency strategy. Most respondents also said that job candidates (69%) and/or employees (58%) expect pay transparency. Employees ranked “fair pay” as the second-biggest reason they stay with their company, behind only job security. That’s up from fourth place in 2022, according to the report.
Mercer also recapped the pay transparency requirements that governments have on their books. California, Colorado, and New York, for instance, “have already implemented stringent laws requiring employers to disclose pay ranges in job postings,” according to the report.
Yet just 32% of organizations indicated they were prepared “to meet global transparency requirements,” Mercer noted. Only 19% of US-based companies said they’ve already implemented a pay transparency strategy, yet the country tracked ahead of the 13% of companies globally that indicated the same.
“The data highlights a disconnect between the importance employers say they place on advancing these strategies, and how much progress has been made,” Gordon Frost, global rewards solution leader at Mercer, said in a news release. “With fair pay the second-most important reason employees choose to stay with an organization, don’t wait to prioritize these efforts—because there is still a lot of work to be done.”