Despite the progressin addressing compensation, less attention is currently being paidto determine whether there are any pay disparities in health care,well-being and retirement benefits. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Employers are making strides to pay workers of all ethnicitiesand genders equitably, according to WorldatWork's Pay Equity Practices and Priorities Survey.

The nonprofit polled more than 350 of its members–compensationmanagers at large employers–and found that a significant majority(79 percent) are now conducting gender pay gap analyses as a standard practice,and nearly the same percentage (71 percent) are making broad payequity analyses standard practice.

Over half (55 percent) are executing remediation strategies, and52 percent are evaluating their remediation options. Just 9 percentof the respondents say they are not considering do gender pay gapanalysis.

Related: Workplace advocates can help close wage gap,especially for women of color

Pay equity is increasingly becoming top of mind for HRprofessionals, says WorldatWork president and CEO Scott Cawood."It's not just about salary, though. Organizations are expandingtheir understanding of areas where potential bias or gaps may existand they are working to address issues linked to the concernsaround any personal attribute being used in any process thatultimately impacts salary, including hiring, promotion and feedbacksystems."

Indeed, the vast majority of respondents are now addressing orplan to address pay equity within their recruitment practices (88percent), individual pay determination decisions (83 percent),hiring practices (83 percent), individual pay determinationdecisions (82 percent) and selection practices (81 percent).

However, less attention is currently being paid to determinewhether there are any pay disparities in health care, well-beingand retirement benefits (58 percent); paid time off and flexibilitybenefits (55 percent) and dependent/elder care benefits (35percent).

"While the survey reveals positive movement towards pay equityremediation, benefits programs are receiving the least amount ofattention when looking for potential biases that may contribute topay disparities," Cawood says.

"Understanding of how benefits programming can skew to attractor serve one group over another is beginning to emerge."

More broadly, in an effort to identify or reduce potentialbiases, respondents are routinely looking at market data (73percent) and rexamining their performance management practices (69percent).

"The finding about performance management practices isintriguing," Cawood says. "One-third (32 percent) of organizationsare not looking at performance management practices in the contextof pay equity, despite the often subjective nature of thoseprograms."

However, employers need to realize that the level of scrutinyfor all pay-related systems will only increase in the next fewyears, he says.

"In the future, performance management programs will have toadhere to updated frameworks in order to be bias-free," Cawoodsays. "One We know, anecdotally, that organizations that do look atperformance management in the pay equity context are experimentingwith removing many pay practices to prevent or reduce bias."

Read more: 

• Gender pay gap stems from lack of access tohigh-paying jobs
• Here's how you can proactively address gender payinequity
• Employees welcome pay gap disclosures, as long asit doesn't affect them