Addressing Gender Pay Gap - Recommendations For Small To Medium Size Organisation

You are a HR manager in a small to medium size organisation. The Managing Director has asked you to review the salaries of all the male and female managers as she has become aware of the burgeoning pay gap between men and women in the workplace. You conduct an audit and discover that the pay differential between the male and female managers is significant. The male managers’ salaries are 15% higher than those of the female managers.

You are required to produce a report with recommendations on how the company will address the pay differential between male and female managers.

The report is based on the context of maintaining equality in the workplace of the various organisations across the globe. The entire report focuses on the article published in the BBC news regarding the statistics of the differentials between the pay of male and female employees in the workplace of the organisations operating in the United Kingdom. The report focuses on some of the legislations which have been established in the society to ensure the maintenance of equality and diversity in the workplace of the organisations (Kirton, 2010). The presence of inequality causes the employees to be treated differently based on a number of factors. In some cases, the gender of the employees becomes one of the factors which causes the employees to be treated differently by the management of the organisation. In this report, we focus on such situations in which the employees in the workplace of the organisations are treated in different way and also given different number of opportunities. There are a number of legislations established in the United Kingdom and Europe which forces the organisations to maintain diversity and equality in the workplace of the organisations, which in turn allows the employees of the organisation to have an effective and efficient workplace of complete various business functions assigned to them. The equality act of 2010 implemented in the United Kingdom requires the management of the organisations operating in the country to maintain equality and diversity in the workplace for the employees. This law for equality is based on a number of previous laws such as the sex discrimination act of 2002 (Mullins, 2007). The provided case could be related to the gender equality law established in Europe which has received updates in the year of 2013. This law forces the organisations operating in the country of Europe to treat the employees in equal way in terms of the salaries, bonuses, behaviours, facilities, benefits, rights and responsibilities. We will go into a deeper level of these amendments to analyse the situation in the small to medium size organisation regarding the differences between the pay grades and bonuses on the male and female employees. In the process of analysing and solving the situation in the small to medium size organisation provided to us, the report will further analyse the various amendments for maintaining diversity and equality in the workplace of the organisations operating in the United Kingdom (Pynes, 2008).

Equal Pay Act 1970

Equal Pay Act 1970

The Equal Pay Act was one of the first legislations of the government of the United Kingdom against the differential behaviour to the male and female employees in terms of payment, bonus or employment conditions. The act was established in the year of 1970 against the differences present in the workplace of the organisations operating at that time in the markets of the United Kingdom (Shen, 2009). The Equal Pay Act of 1970 has received a number of updates over the years and has been superseded by the Equality Act of 2010, which requires all the organisations operating in the United Kingdom to gain and maintain the diversity in the workplace of the organisation. This diversity in the workplace of the organisations operating in the United Kingdom results by treating all the employees in similar and equal way in terms of various concepts of employment, which in turn allows all the employees to feel equal in terms of a number of factors. The significance of the Equal Pay Act of 1970 and various updates it received along with time can be defined in terms of the features and rights provided to the employees of the organisation in the situations of being treated differently. The various updates of this act along with it allow the employees to claim against the management of an organisation or the supervisors in the organisation based on a number of factors. The presence of a number of these factors and situations allows the employees to claim against this act. Some of these conditions and situations are mentioned in this section according to the actual content of the Equal Pay Act of 1970 (Stevens, 2008).

• The employee who has similar work in comparison to the other employees working in the organisation is allowed to claim against this Equal Pay Act of 1970, which in turn causes the management of the organisation to become responsible for the claim against any of the managers or supervisors working in the any of the business functions included in the business model of the organisation.
  
  
• The employee is also allowed to claim under this act if the evaluation of the work done by the him or her is similar or better than the evaluation of the work done by all the other employees in the organisation (Herring, 2009).
  
  
• The employee in the workplace of an organisation is allowed to make a claim under this act of employment if the work done by the employee allows the organisation to gain similar value or revenue in comparison to the other employees in the workplace of the organisation.
  
  
• This act of employment allows the employees in the workplace of an organisation to have a right of a pay equal to the employees having similar work with the creation of similar values (Wajcman, 2013).
  
  
• The updates of this act also includes a number of occupations which are not covered by this act of employment, such as ministers of religion, monks, priests, actors, models etc.

The previous section of the report focused on the legal obligations of the organisations operating in the industries of the United Kingdom to maintain diversity and equality in the workplace. But the responsibilities of the organisations to gain and maintain diversity and equality in the workplace of the organisation should not be just a legal obligations to the management of the organisation. This section focuses on the responsibilities of the organisations to maintain diversity and equality in the workplace as the ethical obligation. The business ethics is defined as the framework which allows the management of the organisation to maintain the quality of the business processes in the workplace (Zanoni, 2010). According to the implemented framework of business ethics, the management of the organisations develop and implement a number of strategies and guidelines which allow them to gain and maintain equality in the workplace. The implementation of the business ethics allows the employees in the organisation to feel more confident and involved in the business model of the organisation. These guidelines and best practices developed by the organisations and various other regulatory bodies in the societies across the operating countries require the management of the organisation to gain and maintain equality in the workplace of the organisation. So the maintenance of diversity and equality in the workplace of the organisation is also an ethical obligation of the management of the organisation (Freeman, 2010).

Ethical obligations

There are a number of factors which causes the differences in the payment to the male and female employees in the workplace of the organisation.

• The social factor which causes the differential pay between the male and female employees of the organisation could be a result of the social values of the country in which the organisation is operating. The people living in the societies across the globe have different values and beliefs which could also allow them to believe the work done by the males to have more work than the work done by the females.
  
  
• The industrial factor which causes the differential pay between the males and females in the workplace of the organisation is the notion of more capability of the male employees to complete the business activities in the corresponding industry (Eagly, 2010).
  
  
• Another organisational factor causing the differential pay between the males and females in the workplace of the organisation is the monopoly of the managerial employees in the workplace of the organisations.

There are a number of initiatives in the industries of the United Kingdom which aims at addressing the gender gap in the industries across the country.

• The government of the country has developed and implemented a number of strategies and guidelines which requires the organisation to maintain equality (Dobbin, 2009).
  
  
• The organisations operating in the industries in the United Kingdom have to comply with a number of best practices which in turn allows the management of the organisations to maintain equality in the workplace.
  
  
• There a number of public and private sector agencies which aim at the presence and maintenance of equality and diversity in the workplace of the organisations.

This section of the report focuses on the strategy which allows the management of the organisation to maintain a non-disciplinary pay structure within the organisation. This strategy allows the management of the organisation to define the pay structure of the employees in terms of a number of factors such as the market value of the skills held by the individuals and the relative value of the various business functions completed by the individual in the workplace of the organisation (Barak, 2013). The management of the organisation should define the pay structure of the entire organisation based on the roles and responsibilities held and maintained by the employees working in the various business functions across the entire organisation. The management of the organisation should also have a business ethics framework implemented in the workplace which in turn allows the pay structure to be independent of the gender of the employees of the organisation.

Conclusion

The presence of inequality causes the employees to be treated differently based on a number of factors. In some cases, the gender of the employees becomes one of the factors which causes the employees to be treated differently by the management of the organisation. In this report, we focus on such situations in which the employees in the workplace of the organisations are treated in different way and also given different number of opportunities (Bateman, 2011). The report included a number of legislations established in the United Kingdom and Europe which forces the organisations to maintain diversity and equality in the workplace of the organisations, which in turn allows the employees of the organisation to have an effective and efficient workplace of complete various business functions assigned to them. The entire report allowed us to analyse and understand the concepts related to the equality and diversity in the workplace of the organisations operating across the country of the United Kingdom. This allows us to look into the issue present in the small to medium sized organisation for which I am appointed as the human resource manager. The next section of the report includes a number of recommendations which allow the management of the organisation to maintain diversity and equality in the workplace of the organisation (Avery, 2007).

This section of the report mentions a number of recommendations which allow the management of the organisation to maintain diversity and equality in the workplace of the organisation.

• The management of the organisation should have effective framework implemented in the workplace of the organisation which allows the employees to be treated equally.
  
  
• The management should ensure the awareness regarding the effects of inequality in the workplace on the business of the organisation among the senior managers of the organisation (Ahmed, 2007).
  
  
• The management of the small to medium sized business should develop and implement effective and efficient rewards program which allows the employees in the workplace to be cautious and motivated to treat all of their fellow co-workers equally.
  
  
• The management of the organisation should focus on the process of maintaining diversity in the organisation by allowing the human resources program to allow the recruitment of diverse people into the organisation.
  
  
• The management of the organisation should focus on increasing the pay grade of the female employees depending on their performances in the business processes. This allows the pay gap between the employees of different gender to be closed a bit. This allows us to understand the process of maintaining the pay scale in the organisation.
  
  
• The management should develop and implement a strategy to efficiently increase the pay of the female employees and decrease the pay of the male employees to close the gender gap in the payment in the organisation (Colgan, 2007).

References

Ahmed, S. 2007. The language of diversity. Ethnic and Racial studies, 30(2), 235-256.

Avery, D. R., McKay, P. F., Wilson, D. C., & Tonidandel, S. 2007. Unequal attendance: The relationships between race, organizational diversity cues, and absenteeism. Personnel Psychology, 60(4), 875-902.

Barak, M. E. M. 2013. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage

Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. 2011. Management: Leading & collaborating in a competitive world. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Colgan, F., Creegan, C., McKearney, A., & Wright, T. 2007. Equality and diversity policies and practices at work: lesbian, gay and bisexual workers. Equal Opportunities International, 26(6), 590-609.

Dobbin, F. 2009. Inventing equal opportunity. Princeton University Press.

Eagly, A. H., & Chin, J. L. 2010. Diversity and leadership in a changing world. American Psychologist, 65(3), 216.

Freeman, R. E. 2010. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge University Press.

Herring, C. 2009. Does diversity pay?: Race, gender, and the business case for diversity. American Sociological Review, 74(2), 208-224.

Kirton, G., & Greene, A. M. 2010. The dynamics of managing diversity. Routledge.

Mullins, L. J. 2007. Management and organisational behaviour. Pearson Education.

Pynes, J. E. 2008. Human resources management for public and nonprofit organizations: A strategic approach (Vol. 30). John Wiley & Sons.

Shen, J., Chanda, A., D'Netto, B., & Monga, M. 2009. Managing diversity through human resource management: An international perspective and conceptual framework. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(2), 235-251.

Stevens, F. G., Plaut, V. C., & Sanchez-Burks, J. 2008. Unlocking the benefits of diversity all-inclusive multiculturalism and positive organizational change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), 116-133.

Wajcman, J. 2013. Managing like a man: Women and men in corporate management. John Wiley & Sons.

Zanoni, P., Janssens, M., Benschop, Y., & Nkomo, S. M. 2010. Unpacking diversity, grasping inequality: Rethinking difference through critical perspectives.