Yesterday’s Advisor featured questions and answers from a recent OFCCP-sponsored chat. Today, more answers from the agencies plus an introduction to a highly practical collection of prewritten, ready-to-use HR policies.
Pat Shiu, director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), was joined for the chat by Latifa Lyles, acting director of the Women’s Bureau (WB) and Jennifer Hunt, chief economist at the DOL.
[Go here for yesterday’s questions and answers]
Question from Annalyn Kurtz: In what occupations is the pay gap the widest?
Dr. Hunt, Chief Economist: The detailed occupation with the worst pay disparity in 2012 was insurance sales agents. Here’s the list::
- Insurance sales agents
- Retail salespersons
- Real estate brokers and sales agents
- Personal financial advisors
- Education administrators
- Physicians and surgeons
- General and operations managers
- Marketing and sales managers
- Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents
- Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers
Question from @SavanGroup: What current initiatives is the DOL undertaking to achieve equal pay?
Latifa Lyles, WB:
- Encouraging women to enter higher-paying career fields, such as science, technology, engineering, and math, and higher-paying green jobs.
- Calling attention to the challenges faced by vulnerable low-wage women workers, such as restaurant workers.
- Working to promote the president’s proposal to raise the minimum wage.
- Working with other federal agencies on President Obama’s Equal Pay Task Force–the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, our sister agency in the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management–to strengthen enforcement of federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination in employment, including in compensation.
BLR’s SmartPolicies gives you 350 HR policies, prewritten for you, ready to customize or use as is. Click Here
Question from Kristin: Most companies have a pay for performance system in place. How do you view these systems, and how they can impact pay differences between genders and ethnicities?
Patricia Shiu, OFCCP: When companies use performance to set pay, they need to do so without discrimination. Performance can be a valid basis for paying employees differently, but the OFCCP will investigate and test any factors that a contractor uses to determine pay to ensure they are not tainted by discrimination. Where identified employment practices such as performance review systems show disparities, the OFCCP reviews for potential evidence regarding whether the practices result in disparate treatment or disparate impact—including inquiring about evidence of validation and/or the existence of best practices to reduce adverse impact.
Patricia Shiu closed the chat by saying, “… we are committed to closing the pay gap that denies millions of American workers the fair wages to which they are entitled.”
What’s your policy on pay equality? And what about all those other policies that you need? Our editors estimate that for most companies, there are 50 or so policies that need regular updating (or maybe need to be written). It’s easy to let policies slide, but you can’t afford to—your policies are your only hope for consistent and compliant management that avoids lawsuits.
Fortunately, BLR’s editors have done most of the work for you in their extraordinary program called SmartPolicies.
Don’t struggle with creating compliant HR policies! We’ve already written them for you, and at less than $1 each. Click Here.
SmartPolicies’ expert authors have already worked through the critical issues on some 100 policy topics and have prewritten the policies for you.
In all, SmartPolicies contains some 350 policies, arranged alphabetically from absenteeism and blogging to cell phone safety, EEO, voice mail, and workers’ compensation. What’s more, the CD format makes these policies easily customizable. Just add your company specifics or use as is.
Just as important, as regulations and court decisions clarify your responsibilities on workplace issues, the policies are updated—or new ones are added—as needed, every quarter, as a standard part of the program.
SmartPolicies is available to HR Daily Advisor subscribers on a 30-day evaluation basis at no cost or risk … even for return postage. If you’d like to have a look at it, let us know, and we’ll be happy to arrange it.