#53 – How Novartis is Renewing (and Keeping) Their Fair Pay Pledge

This week, Henrike caught up with Marcus Priest, Head of U.S. and R&D Rewards at Novartis, to learn about Novartis’ public pledge with the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC). Many companies have taken this pledge in their own way, committing to reducing inequalities through targeted goals that fit their organizational culture.

Novartis made their first EPIC pledge in 2018, at which time they made four specific commitments “to achieve gender balance in management at Novartis and further improve our pay equity/transparency processes by 2023.” Their goals for 2023 were to:

Monitor pay equity with global consistency
Remove bias from the system
Create pay transparency
Achieve gender balance in management by 2023

This year, Novartis renewed their commitment to these targets, in recognition that the journey to pay and opportunity parity is an ongoing practice, not a destination. To continue their efforts and strengthen the strides they’ve already made toward equality, Novartis has committed to:

Maintaining a positive gender balance in management and monitoring the impact that has on the overall pay gap.
Against the backdrop of the new EU legislation, Novartis will build EU Pay Transparency Directive-based thinking into their internal processes and practices.
Novartis will continue to go beyond an examination of base pay and salaries to explore whether there are other sources of bias in the broader compensation framework.

Henrike applauded these goals, adding that the Fair Pay Innovation (FPI) lab has pledged to increase the number of workshops they hold for young professionals and students; double and accelerate partnerships to bring more employers to fair pay practices; help companies to become certified in a broad way. As Henrike put it, she wants to help employers “make EPIC moves” toward a fairer world.

Friday Coffee Talk from Planet Fair is a podcast/videocast series co-hosted by PayAnalytics founder Margrét Bjarnadóttir and Henrike Von Platen, founder and CEO of the FPI Fair Pay Innovation Lab in Berlin. It is available through all podcast platforms as well as on YouTube as a videocast.