#39 - A Good Week for Pay Equity: International Women’s Day and Fair Pay Certification

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.

Margrét and Henrike debrief after a good week in pay equity. The week featured International Women’s Day everywhere, and also Equal Pay Day in Germany, where Henrike drinks her coffee.

This year, the tagline of International Women’s Day was “embrace equity.” Margrét takes a practical perspective. “We can do all the embracing that we want, but what are the concrete steps that we are going to take to actually make a difference?”

In other big news, BMW just passed FPI’s Universal Fair Pay Check. In fact, the company is Germany’s first gold-medal universal fair pay leader, the highest possible level.

So why do companies seek fair pay certification? It’s often about a desire to attract and retain talent. But Henrike has found that it’s also about trust and communication. Sometimes, employers have been moving in the right direction – but employees don’t quite trust the company’s claims. Third-party certification signals to workers that their employer is trustworthy.

And once a company wants fair pay certification, what do they do?

There are two first steps:

Pay equity analysis using the company’s data and variables that capture the compensation philosophy. It's important to identify and examine the key drivers and variables that influence salary decisions within the organization.
Evaluate the company’s bonus system or other long-term incentive schemes. Are the bonuses fair? Are they decided objectively?

To get the full dispatch from Planet Fair, head to our coffee talk page … or your favorite podcast outlet! Friday Coffee Talk is now available on major platforms including Spotify.

Friday Coffee Talk from Planet Fair is a YouTube series co-hosted by PayAnalytics founder Margrét Bjarnadóttir and Henrike Von Platen, founder and CEO of the FPI Fair Pay Innovation Lab in Berlin.