Internal Pay Equity

Vantage analyzes internal pay equity in light of Lilly Ledbetter Act.

Situation: Facing threats of unequal pay claims and given recent passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Act, a client wanted to quickly ensure that its pay practices were equitable and yielded no pay disparity or adverse impact on any protected class of employees. This included both its current salary structure and recently developed merit increase program.

Goal: To ensure full compliance with all applicable laws and promote fair and equitable compensation and merit increase programs.

Process: Vantage reviewed and analyzed the employee data regarding current salary, evaluation rating, proposed merit increases and resulting salary across the organization and within identified job grades and salary bands. Data was sorted and analyzed based on the following data cuts: Job Grade/Salary Band Mid-Point, Job Grade/Salary Band Assignment, Evaluation Score, % Recommendations, % to Mid-Point after recommendation, Department, Range Penetration before and after application of Merit Increase Program, Actual Pay Before and After and Actual Pay Hierarchy, and analyzed for adverse impact based on race, gender, FLSA classification and compensation level. Statistical analyses were performed to determine the strength of linear correlation between certain combinations of data to permit analysis of client questions. These combinations included:

• Ethnicity and classification, evaluation score, % recommendation, % to mid-point, department


• Gender and classification, evaluation score, % recommendation, % to mid-point, department


• Exempt and Nonexempt and evaluation score, % recommendation, % to mid-point, gender, department


• High to Low actual pay


• Grade assignment and performance score, % recommendation, % to mid-point, gender, department

Based on the results of our analysis, Vantage made recommendations relating to the overall program as well as individual situations requiring remedy.

Results: The project was successfully completed on time (within one week) and within budget. Vantage consultants provided a comprehensive report from which senior leadership could make prompt and effective decisions and all of our recommendations were accepted and implemented.