Thursday, December 03, 2015

Employee Pay

Greetings,
Workplace pay is one area of focus among many employees.  At the end of the day, people want to know if their pay is above market, below market, or at a near average rate.  It can be awfully confusing and sometimes accurate information is hard to locate.  According to this recent Harvard Business Review article, the answers are not so clear cut:
http://predator.oldwestbury.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=111099004&site=ehost-live

First, there is a difference between perception of fair pay and reality.  For instance, according to the findings in the Harvard Business Review article, most employees who are paid at market rates actually feel that they are underpaid.  Think about that.  A study shows that employees who are receiving average pay think they are being paid below the market average.  One reason this persists is because employers are hesitant to share what average wages are in a particular field.  Assuming management and employers are able to establish some trust, sharing this information can change employee perceptions of the labor market.  A couple of years ago, I took a class at Stony Brook University.  A component of the class involved mock salary negotiations.  Explaining your position and backing it up with some data was invaluable.  While some people do have selective hearing, my experience was that our mock negotiators appreciated such candid disclosure.  That's not to say that we shared everything!  Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.  That said, once you have empathy for someone else's position, it's much easier to facilitate a value for value trade.  Until next time, you can find me in the library.