Job grade camouflage: When low gender pay gap does not mean equal pay

Abstract

“Equal pay for equal work” is one of the backbone principles of Responsible Leadership. It is also deeply incorporated in legislation, mostly in developed countries. In recent decades, the gender pay gap has been put forward as a general indicator of equality by policy makers and researches alike. Yet, the research outcomes are disturbingly unsettled in comparison to bold political proclamations that are often based on simplified statistics. In our article we show, that gender pay gap shrinks substantially if firm-level job grades (based on Hay methodology) are used. The methodology used is gender neutral and focuses solely on the job size, not on the incumbent. Moreover, we show that the gender pay gap is not reflecting the idea of “equal pay for equal work” well. In fact, we conclude that people are being paid unequally regardless their gender. Low or non-existent gender pay gap then might just camouflage real inequalities leading managers and stakeholders to false feeling that company follows responsible leadership principles as defined by Steve Kempster (2016).