<b>Internet Explorer is no longer a supported browser on imercer.com.</b> For an optimal experience on imercer.com, please use Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari.
Welcome to imercer | Questions? Call 866-605-1031
Close
What is pay transparency? Simply put, pay transparency is when employers share pay and other compensation information about a job with job applicants or current employees. The goal of pay transparency is to promote fairness, equity, and accountability in compensation practices. By being upfront and open about pay and salary information, your organization can foster a culture of trust and openness, where employees feel valued and encouraged to advocate for fair compensation.
Pay transparency laws can be complex and confusing. While the laws vary from state to state, and sometimes even from city to city, most pay transparency laws, at a minimum, require employers to share the salary range of a job with job applicants. Many laws also support internal pay transparency by allowing employees to discuss their pay without fear of punishment. Ensuring your organization is complying with the transparency laws of your state is step one in creating a transparent and honest environment to discuss pay.
Make sure you know what your state requires by law to ensure that you are complying.
Pay transparency can offer you and your employees a wide variety of benefits that go beyond just legal compliance. Many organizations are implementing pay transparency to build trust, foster equality, and increase employee engagement within the organization.
By promoting transparency in compensation practices, organizations can create a more positive and productive work environment for their employees. Let’s explore, in detail, some of the benefits of having a transparent compensation practice that goes beyond just aiming to be to be compliant with the law.
There are numerous benefits to providing your employees with access to information about how compensation decisions are made and how their own pay, benefits, and total rewards compare to those of other employees:
With pay being available to employees, potential employees, and the public in a variety of ways, it’s more important than ever that you are using accurate data, supported by your compensation strategy, to establish the right pay for your jobs.
Related articles:
Pay transparency: The key to employee retention
Job architecture before pay transparency
How are you determining geographic pay differentials?
Pay transparency is here and it is now imperative to act and translate your commitment to transparency into tangible policies and practices that directly influence the employee experience. Watch as the experts from Mercer discuss the growing importance of pay transparency beyond just what is required by law.
Setting base pay without understanding the value of total compensation can get messy. Our salary surveys provide you with elements beyond just base pay to give you the full picture of where the market is. You can also go beyond salary surveys and discover surveys and reports that can be used to confidently develop competitive policies and practices you and your employees will be excited about.
The US Mercer Benchmark Database provides you with a one-stop shop for current and trusted insights on pay across different industries.
View product
The US Compensation Planning Pulse Survey is perfect for those looking for insights into the latest compensation planning trends, including annual increase budgets, salary structure adjustments, and hot topics affecting total rewards.
The Geographic Salary Differential Tool allows you to identify the differences in cost of labor at the city and national level using data from more than 2,000 locations.
TAAP+ is a ready-made toolbox of templates, checklists, and products powered by Mercer data to help you plan, design, and evaluate the ROI of your pay and benefits policies.
Key HR topics covered in the compensation Policies & Practices Survey enhance your compensation plan with critical policies and practices data from over 500 companies across the country regarding.