Big Law & Pay Equity: What Your Peers Are Saying (Part Two)

In our final installment of “Big Law & Pay Equity: What Your Peers Are Saying,” Christopher T. Wall, a partner at Stoel Rives LLP in Seattle, discusses how the tightening labor market has given employees more power to negotiate salary and benefits. He says this trend, combined with high turnover, will drive equal pay litigation. A robust job market might cause some to job hop for better pay, but other employees “may feel quite confident about their ability to find a new job, and they may be emboldened to litigate pay equity claims” against their current employers, he says.

Meanwhile, Perkins Coie LLP senior counsel Chris Wilkinson and Cary Elliott, a director at Resolution Economics, discuss trends in pay transparency and equity and their growing significance in ESG metrics. “Moving forward, all signs point to the growing importance of pay equity for employers,” they write.

And Christine Hendrickson, vice president at Syndio, a tech company that helps employers analyze pay data—who is a former law firm partner—discusses flaws in law firm data collection and analysis and suggests how firms can correct practices that contribute to compensation gaps between men and women.

“Many cannot fully or consistently explain, let alone demonstrate with sound methodology and analysis, the factors that determine pay. In fact, some firms have been accused of being a compensation ‘black box.’ With so many law firms providing legal advice to their own clients about pay equity, why the disconnect?” she asks.

Finally, we hear from Ann Olivarius, chair and founding partner of McAllister Olivarius, a transatlantic law firm specializing in race and gender discrimination cases. She offers steps that firms and companies can take to remove barriers to women’s advancement and suggests they start by “releasing annual gender audits of salaries, positions, opportunities offered, and plans for redressing gaps.”

Read the Insights featuring pay equity legal issues and possible solutions by clicking on the authors’ names below.

• Stoel Rives Partner Christopher T. Wall
• Perkins Coie Senior Counsel Chris Wilkinson and Cary Elliott, a director at Resolution Economics
• Syndio LLP Vice President Christine Hendrickson
• McAllister Olivarius Chair and Founding Partner Ann Olivarius

VIDEO: If Women Still Earn Less, Can Laws Even Fix The Pay Gap?