Of 31,000 employees, including 3,105 in the U.S., 47% say their pay is not on par with workers holding similar jobs at other companies, a Willis Towers Watson 2016 Global Workforce study found. That compares to 53% who said the opposite, while 55% said they thought they were paid fairly when measured against others with similar roles in their own companies.
Another Willis Towers Watson survey of employees at more than 2,000 companies worldwide, including 441 in the U.S., found that 52% of employers have set up a formal process for showing they are proactive in promoting fair compensation.
Bettina Deynes, vice president for human resources at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), noted two main reasons for the disconnect on fair compensation, including that senior managers have written it off as too challenging. “For the most part, they know that it is important, but it is not getting enough attention as a necessity [to garner] a commitment to action,” Deynes said.
Some senior managers also "may know they are not competitive in terms of compensation and benefits, and would rather let sleeping dogs lie,’” she added. “What they don't realize is that pay transparency is a critical employee concern, and that the dog is not sleeping.”