Friday Coffee Talk from Planet Fair

Diversity will drop into place if your system is objective and stereotype-free. But what if it isn’t?

In ensuring pay equity, global companies contend with the need to account for cultural values across countries. Read on to find out how to address cultural differences in compensation decisions.

​​Among the practices that helped earn BMW its gold medal for universal fair pay leadership, the company allows joint leadership for some leadership positions. In this coffee talk, Margrét and Henrike discuss this practice: when can it be helpful to allow one full-time position to be filled by two part-time workers instead?

Margrét and Henrike talk about the variables that determine pay. Should older employees be paid more than young ones doing the same job? Are there alternative approaches to using age to represent experience? Our hosts also talk about employee performance, the most controversial (and possibly most fun) variable to measure.

In this week’s Coffee Talk, Henrike speaks with Astrid Siemes-Knoblich. Astrid served as mayor of her town in southwestern Germany. After her term was over, she realized that her predecessor and her successor — who were both men — were paid more than she was.

Margrét and Henrike talk about good news for pay equity: International Women’s Day and a major Universal Fair Pay Check win from BMW. The duo discuss why companies pursue fair pay certification. (It’s not just about employer branding – it can build lasting trust with employees.) Plus, they outline the two first steps companies take in order to get certified.

New pay transparency laws in many countries allow employees to ask for a salary comparison. But what happens when pay discrimination is revealed? In this coffee talk, Henrike talks with Gabriele Gamroth-Günther, who gives a firsthand account of her experience and her landmark legal case.

In this coffee talk, Prof. Alan Benson discusses his research with Margrét. He found a gender gap in employee evaluations: female employees are 50% more likely to be labeled “high performance” but “low potential” for promotion.

Coffee Talk Episode 35 focuses on some illuminating research on gender bias. Margrét is joined by Julia Barnett, a PhD candidate at Northwestern University. Julia's research interests lie in algorithmic ethics and transparency, reducing the socio-technical harms of algorithmic systems, and deep generative applications in social contexts. Her recent study shows how patients perceive doctors differently based on the doctor’s gender. She examined over 400,000 online reviews of physicians.

In Episode 35, the first Coffee Talk session of 2023, Margret Bjarnadottir speaks with Salomé Germain Trigano. Salomé is an expert in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). She established Arba Advisory with the objective of guiding companies and universities in formulating and implementing a potent DEI action plan, fostering a more inclusive and diverse culture, and realizing ambitious and quantifiable objectives.

Where does the Equal Pay Gap come from? Are there any patterns? Like with all good questions, it depends!

Not all companies have the same motivations for closing their equal pay gaps. In this week’s Coffee Talk, Margret speaks with PayAnalytics co-founder David Anderson about the two major types of motivation and how they influence companies’ decision-making. This short discussion is based on David’s recent presentation at the WorldatWork pay equity forum in Austin, Texas.