Is pay transparency working? Partly, say world’s top people leaders

Most HR professionals agree that pay transparency helps level the playing field for workers. But are the benefits as meaningful for employers too?

Glassdoor’s Economic Research team surveyed an elite group of executive level people leaders from UK and US companies ranked as one of the 2023 Best Places to Work by employees.

The results are the first in an ongoing series of surveys asking HR’s leading figures their honest opinion of the hottest topics impacting the workplace.

Gathering insights from senior people and HR leaders at companies including BlackRock, Dell Technologies, Equinix, Deloitte, Intel, Boston Consulting Group, Qualtrics, and more.

The research on pay transparency found that people leaders aren’t concerned about pay transparency’s risk to talent retention, whilst 79% of those surveyed said posting salary information or pay band on listings for open jobs had no impact on retaining talent.

There are mixed views regarding talent acquisition with 34% agreeing that open roles with salary information attract a higher quality applicant pool, but 37% disagree.

Three in four (75%) of those surveyed believe greater pay transparency will lead to a more frequent reevaluation of compensation benchmarks.

Two-thirds or 66% think greater pay transparency will be burdensome for People teams to implement, but the written commentary in the survey suggests many People leaders believe pay transparency is worth the effort.

When looking specifically at each company’s practices around pay transparency, the research discovered:

• Nearly all (97%) companies surveyed practice pay equity analysis by gender – but a lower number (79%) do the same via race/ethnicity.
• 93% of those interviewed provide diversity training for employees who manage teams or are responsible for interviewing job candidates.
• Although 3 in 5 companies (59%) are transparent about salaries with job candidates, less than a third (31%) offer pay transparency internally. However, companies providing internal pay transparency are ranked more highly on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work lists by employees.

Job titles of those responding to the survey include Chief People Officer, Global Head of Employer Brand, Chief Operating Officer, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Executive Vice President – People, and more.

Glassdoor’s chief economist Aaron Terrazas said, “Pay transparency is a fraught topic for many People leaders, but it is increasingly the norm for companies at the forefront of workplace equity and employee engagement.”

He added, “Pay transparency is a topic people leaders cannot afford to ignore. Employees, job candidates and, in some cases, legislators, are pushing companies to embrace the practice.

“The overriding sentiment from the global People Leaders surveyed by Glassdoor is that pay transparency is a central part of how they earn the respect of and retain their employees.”