Between 1950 and 1960, women who were employed full-time earned, on average, between 59 to 64 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned in the same roles.
Sixty years later, and 56 years after the 1964 passage of the Equal Pay Act, women still earn 81 cents for every dollar earned by men.
“There remains a disparity in how men and women are paid, even when all compensable factors are controlled, meaning that women are still being paid less than men due to no attributable reason other than gender,” Payscale’s “The State of the Gender Pay Gap 2020” report states.
As a result, many companies have launched internal efforts and processes to ensure equitable pay for all employees.
In Austin, one company in particular has gone on the offensive: LogicMonitor.
Through extensive data modeling, a pay-for-performance compensation philosophy, formal goal-setting, and a quarterly merit and promotion cycle, Alexis Barrett said the enterprise IT monitoring platform keeps pay disparities from “creeping in” for any role.
“Competitive and fair compensation is one of the most essential elements to attract and retain the top talent that fuels the LogicMonitor rocket ship,” said Barrett, an HR team lead. “We take this responsibility seriously.”
For a deeper look into LogicMonitor’s ongoing campaign against the wage gap, Built In Austin connected with Barrett.
What steps have you taken to understand and address any wage gaps that may have existed at LogicMonitor?
Barrett: Compensation professionals get an accurate picture of potential wage disparities by analyzing employee compensation for different demographic groups relative to the market using a comparative ratio. This is achieved by dividing an employee’s salary by the midpoint of the market range for their position, and it measures where an employee sits within the range. One hundred percent means the employee’s pay is right at the midpoint. Someone at 85 percent may be brand new to the role, while someone at 110 percent is likely very seasoned and may be eligible for a promotion soon.
We leverage the Radford Global Technology Survey to benchmark our roles and create our salary ranges. With millions of data points for reported employee salary actuals, Radford is the most comprehensive collection of global compensation data. Using externally verified data mitigates bias that may be inherent if ranges are drafted internally. We then use the comparative ratio both on an individual basis to make adjustments as needed, and in the aggregate to evaluate the difference, if any, between the average comparative ratio of men and women across our organization. We run additional analysis across roles to ensure there is no disparity creeping in at any level.
When it comes to determining raises, how do you ensure the process is transparent and unbiased?
We’re proud to have “pay for performance” as the guiding principle of our compensation philosophy. We use an agile, quarterly merit and promotion cycle to undergird this commitment to our employees, called “LMers,” which ensures that our compensation philosophy is as dynamic as our business. Our total rewards team provides leadership with performance metrics for each employee as well as the comparative ratio and market range for each role. We believe equipping our management team with all of the relevant data available is one of the best ways we can mitigate the gender pay gap while maintaining a pay-for-performance philosophy.
Competitive and fair compensation is one of the most essential elements to attract and retain the top talent that fuels the LogicMonitor rocket ship. We take this responsibility seriously. We also believe that pay and career progression should be a 360-degree conversation. Our leadership team talks openly about our quarterly merit and promotion cycle and encourages employees to have career conversations with their direct manager on a regular basis. LMers are equipped to do this through formal goal-setting and career compasses that the LM HR business partner team has developed.
After every pay cycle, we measure our comparative ratios by gender to hold ourselves accountable in continuing pay equity at LogicMonitor.”
What goals or metrics do you have in place to track your progress toward pay equity and hold your company accountable?
We hold ourselves accountable by monitoring our performance and using data to measure our people metrics. From meeting hiring goals, retaining our talent, pulsing on employee engagement, and measuring the effectiveness of our total rewards packages, we are constantly tracking our numbers. Compensation metrics are an imperative subset of what we monitor. After every pay cycle, we measure our comparative ratios by gender to hold ourselves accountable in continuing pay equity at LogicMonitor.
We’re also committed to a broader understanding of this complex issue. There’s been recent conversations on the “Broken Rung Philosophy,” which stems from a 2019 McKinsey report on Women in the Workplace that talks about the difficulty for women to progress into management positions. At LogicMonitor, the percent of women in leadership positions exceeds the percent of female LMers, indicating we do not face this issue. Our Chief People Officer Todd Riesterer always says, “We never rest on our laurels, we never declare victory in this area,” so we continue to look for ways to support and advance women in their careers at LM, including executive sponsorship of our very active community group, Women@LM.
