Monday, November 28, 2005

Getting Even (off topic - HR politics)

OK, this is not a HR tech post, but I thought it was very interesting.

I got this from BostonWorks which cited WAGEproject.org. This issue of gender pay differentials should be treated very seriously by HR professionals and especially compensation. It's sad to think that even in this century, we are going to struggle with this problem (and race too I'm sure) for decades if not for longer than that.

Women Are Getting Even (WAGE) is a great brand. It suggests that we are getting closer to that elusive equity, but also that women are getting more aggressive (which I agree with). I truly believe that most HR organizations really do care about pay equity, but we are often hampered by managers who don't have the same priorities.

As technology progresses and we are able to better measure skills and competencies vs. job requirements, hopefully we'll be able to tie actual wages to a person's abilities. However, this takes both time and money to roll out, and only the big HR organizations can afford this stuff. Technology brings hope to me, because personal bias is too hard to overcome alone.

(ok - that's my rant for the 4th quarter...)