Sharing
your last salary – re-enforcing the gender pay gap…
The interview process is never easy. Whether you are actively searching for a new
position or being head hunted, selling yourself effectively can go against
ingrained social habits.
As a potential employer, there is significant risk
in hiring the wrong people, too.
So both sides have a lot to lose if the interview
process is ineffective.
While we frequently hear that people do not leave
jobs because of money, very few candidates are looking to drop their salaries …
Interviewers have a number of tools at their
disposal enabling them to align the right candidate with the role on offer:
·
Psychometric
testing
·
References
·
The
face to face interview process
·
The
CV / Resumé
·
Social
media profiles
However, the previous salary is a time tested way
for the interviewer to measure against the skills and experience claimed in the
CV.
Why is there a risk that this re-enforces the gender
gap?
Well, let’s look at the following scenario.
·
Company ABC has vacancies in two of their divisions
for Financial Managers.
·
They decide on two candidates, Joe and Sarah, both
in their late 30s with the same undergrad degree and both with around 10 years
of experience. They are each asking for
55k.
·
The 55k is around the budgeted amount although
management had been hoping to offer around 53k each.
·
HR asks both candidates for a copy of their previous
payslip. Joe was on 50k and Sarah on
45k. The reason Sarah is leaving her
current company is that she has realised that her male counterparts that she
studied with are all earning between 10 and 20% more than she is, and she is
hoping to close that gap.
·
As the 50k is slightly over the 10%, she
accepts. Joe also accepts a 10% increase
and gets the 55k. The company are now 1k
below their budget, too. Sounds like a
win for everybody!
·
However, this affects the rest of their careers at
ABC. His salary level means that bonuses
and incentives are based on a higher number for him. He is seen as senior if execs are looking at financial
statistics and so he has the advantage when promotions are available and so it
goes on.
The factors around your salary are much more complex
and have a higher impact than you can imagine.
So the negotiations at the beginning are crucial.
How should Sarah handle this admittedly hypothetical
situation?
If she knows there are two positions available, she
could ask if the same salary is on offer for both, because she had benchmarked
salaries and believes that the R55k is more market related.
She could also query whether they are basing the
offer on her previous salary and ask whether they would have offered the 55 if she
was on 50.
She could share that the opportunity is exciting and
she is really keen to join ABC but express concerns and explain that one of her
main reasons for moving is to close the gender pay gap and it seems that
somebody with her experience and qualifications should be closer to 55k than
50.
The management now have the choice to even the
playing field or stick to the original offer.
Companies do need to benchmark and they can ask
pertinent questions so as to establish whether it is a pay gap or delivery
issue. Sarah can respond that she
believes she was delivering at the same level as the men earning 10% more - not
more, not less, but the same and that the only reason for the salary
differential was her gender.
What happens next will tell Sarah a lot about the
company and whether she wants to work there or not.
But without the conversation, there is no chance of
achieving her financial goals.
Employers aim to hire the right people for the right
job at market related salaries. The
tools they have available create a picture of whether each candidate fits the
profile. The previous salary forms part
of this picture.
Employers will continue to ask as long as it legal
to do so (although there are places where it is not, Puerto Rico and certain
American states, among them).
As a candidate it is difficult to refuse to answer
but responding that you would prefer to wait for an offer and then negotiate
around that offer, is not unreasonable, or requesting a guide line as to budget
for the role and confirming whether your salary requirements are within in that
band is another way to handle the question.
The closing of the gender pay gap is a complex issue
and there are many factors contributing to it.
Taking that into account, the previous salary may act as a guideline,
but both companies and candidates should be aware that it could contribute to extending
the gap.
Links,
References and Notes
Accsys provides people management solutions ie Payroll, Human Resources (HR), Time and Attendance as well as Access Control/Visitor Management.
The company develops, implements,
trains and services our solutions. We
provide readers, turnstiles, booms and CCTV.
We run both on premise and in the
cloud, as well as mobile options for ESS.
Recruitment, online education and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) are
part of our offering, too.
http://www.accsys.co.za/accsys-peopleplace-talent-management
email:
tschroenn@accsys.co.za
twitter:
@TerylSchroenn
Note:
Thank you for reading Teryl@Work.
Should you wish to use any of the material, please acknowledge this blog
as the source.
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