(Calgary) As widespread labor shortages force Canadian companies to re-evaluate their employee recruitment and retention practices, experts say pay transparency is becoming more mainstream.
Posted at 11:46 a.m.
Outside of the public sector and unionized stores, wages in North America have long been considered a private matter between employer and employee. Job postings usually don’t disclose compensation, and the question of money usually doesn’t come up until the interview stage, or even later.
But a growing number of stakeholders say that needs to change, in part to address gender and racial equity issues, but also to keep talented employees in the workforce.
“I fully intend to tell my children, years from now, that once upon a time you applied for a job and had no idea what it paid,” said Allison Venditti, founder of Moms at Work, a Canadian organization that defends women in the labor market. “And they’ll think it’s ridiculous. »
Moms At Work has launched an online job search site, which requires all job postings to fully disclose the salary range for the position.
Mme Venditti said this is necessary because pay transparency is a way to solve the problem of the pay gap that still persists in society.
“Women and people of color are grossly underpaid. We know it, she said. We’ve been talking about the pay gap for ages, and this is one of the fastest ways to help fix it. »
Some jurisdictions are embarking on the pay transparency movement. The state of Colorado already has a law that requires employers to clearly state salary ranges in all of their public job postings. Similar legislation will take effect in New York this spring.
Last year, the Canadian government passed the Pay Equity Act, which will eventually require all federally chartered workplaces with 100 or more employees to publicly disclose data on the pay gap for women, Indigenous , persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities.
“This is something that companies are going to have to start preparing for,” warned Laura Machan, recruitment partner in the Toronto office of LHH, an international executive placement agency. “Partly because governments, both federal and provincial, are beginning to require it, and partly because it’s part of their ethical, social and governance goals. »
But the question is complicated, indicated Mr.me Machan. Many companies can’t just start publishing pay scales without doing a lot of in-house work first.
“Imagine if one of your long-time, highly valued employees saw a job offer for his job that was 10% more than he earned,” she gave as an example. I think there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure the internal pay scales are fair before we get to the job offer part. »
The non-profit organization FoodShare Toronto is an employer that already discloses salaries on its job postings. Katie German, Director of Advocacy for FoodShare, testified that the organization has seen a steady increase in the number of applicants since adopting this approach.
“We actually have a policy of not negotiating salaries. But we’re also a decent-wage employer, as no one who works here makes less than $24 an hour, she said. One of the reasons many employers have not embraced pay transparency is because they know they are paying too little. If you’re embarrassed to post your pay scale, that’s a clear sign that you need to do better. »
Jen Aitchison of Sutton, Ont., said she quit a job in the insurance industry after discovering over drinks after work that she was earning 30% less than a more recent male colleague than her in the organization. The revelation made her feel disrespected and unappreciated.
“People think women are bad at negotiating, but I don’t think that’s true,” she said. If people don’t know what the issues are on the table, they are simply taken advantage of by the company. »
Mme Aitchison thinks greater transparency could actually benefit the company itself, especially right now as they compete for talent amid widespread labor shortages.
“Every company needs to know that sooner or later that employee who’s worked for them for 10 years is going to find out that new Joe is making $20,000 more than her. And she might just leave, she said. This idea that many women have of leaving their jobs to be paid their fair value hurts companies more than they realize. »