Surprising Details on Salary Compression from WorldatWork’s Total Rewards Conference Attendees

We just returned from another fantastic Total Rewards Conference hosted by WorldatWork. Hundreds of the country’s top human resources and compensation professional gathered in Dallas, Texas to learn from leading industry experts. WorldatWork invited us to speak about the increasingly significant topic of salary compression and how to address it in order to retain the best talent. We were joined by two panelists: Steffany Jay, Senior Compensation Manager at Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., a Fortune 500 company, and Dylan Allread, VP of Human Resources at Wag Labs Inc., an L.A.-based start-up. They shared their unique experiences and success stories tackling the issue of pay inequity.

Our session on the first morning of the conference was attend by over 200 engaged and inquisitive total rewards professionals. Together with Dylan and Steffany, we discussed the negative impacts of salary compression, the results of Pearl Meyer’s recent Salary Compression Practices in the United States Survey, and practical approaches to avoid and address salary compression. Participants enjoyed their direct involvement in the session’s real-time polls conducted on the conference mobile app.

We developed three polling questions to see how the audience compared and contrasted with our panelists’ first-hand professional experience. Since pay transparency is directly related to salary compression, we started with the bold question, “Have you ever shared your salary information with colleagues/peers?” Thirty-nine percent of the attendees answered yes while 61% said no. Steffany joked, “HR professionals aren’t supposed to disclose their pay!” and the audience erupted in laughter. Dylan followed up that he would expect the percentage to increase if asked in the San Francisco Bay Area or to technology-focused employees.

Since salary compression often requires uncomfortable conversations between managers and their subordinates we asked, “Are your line managers trained to discuss salary compression concerns from employees?” Only 31% indicated that managers are involved, while 69% revealed that this burden falls on the shoulders of human resources.

Pearl Meyer’s Salary Compression Practices Survey results showed that salary compression has the greatest impact on morale and retention so we asked the audience, “Have you ever left a job because you were not being paid fairly as compared to colleagues?” It was surprising that half of the audience members had direct pay inequity experience. We can only speculate what this number may be in other non-human resources roles. At the conclusion of the presentation, the audience asked several excellent questions, including one about how the external influence of minimum wage increases effects salary compression for lower level positions within organizations. Our recent Workspan article discusses this issue in more in more detail.

Thanks again to WorldatWork for hosting a wonderful event, we’re counting down the days for Orlando in 2019!