Almost two-thirds of UK employees would be happy to share pay details publicly if it meant better pay equity, new salary transparency research has found.
Just a couple of weeks before the gender pay gap reporting deadline of 31 March for public sector employers and 4 April for private and voluntary sector organisations, the survey by software company beqom found that 62% of UK workers would share details of their pay if it meant more transparency and fairness.
Beqom’s Levelling the Paying Field report found that millennials (70%) are the most likely to be willing to publicly share their salary to benefit others’ knowledge, compared to Gen Zers (59%), Gen Xers (58%) and baby boomers (51%).
The government launched a salary transparency pilot a year ago after a number of research studies had indicated that sharing salaries on job adverts improved candidate attraction and also lessened the likelihood of women being unequally paid.
Beqom’s study also found that more than two in five (42%) UK employees think their workplace has a problem with gender pay gaps, a third think the gender pay gap has increased in their organisation and almost two-thirds (63%) think inflation has made them more likely to discuss pay with their colleagues.
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More than half (56%) of employees do not think they’re paid fairly, beqom found, and 22% don’t think their employer is doing enough to close or prevent gender pay gaps. Less than half (47%) thought their manager took the issue seriously.
Nearly half of employees (47%) think their workplace has a problem with age-based pay gaps and more than a third (36%) think their workplace has a problem with ethnicity pay gaps.
Fifty-four per cent thought more could be done on a national level to address the gender pay gap, with women more likely than men to argue for this (63% versus 45%). Fifty-seven per cent said stronger legislation was needed.
Tanya Jansen, co-founder of beqom, said employers should consider introducing more transparent compensation processes that would reduce bias and lessen the likelihood of pay discrepancies.
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“As the cost-of-living crisis shows no signs of slowing down and workers feel the pressure of making ends meet, it’s vital that companies focus on pay transparency within their organisations as transparency plays a pivotal role in pay equity,” she said.
Not taking pay equity seriously could also affect how companies attract talent. Beqom found that almost three-quarters of millennial workers (73%) would be more willing to work at a company that discloses gender pay gap figures each year.
