Tight Labor Market’s Recruitment Focus Puts Pay Equity at Risk

Efforts at achieving pay equity are in danger of falling by the wayside as the tight labor market forces employers to boost salary offers to attract much-needed talent.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic left more open jobs than workers willing to fill them, companies are increasingly finding themselves having to offer higher and higher pay to entice workers to leave their current employers.

But if existing workers’ salaries remain stagnant, those recruiting efforts could translate into legal trouble.

Employers generally have flexibility in determining pay provided they don’t discriminate based on race, ethnicity, or gender. If companies don’t routinely run a ...