What if pay equity
in higher education was
It can be.
Less than 9% of the top reporting research institutions have achieved "equal pay for equal work."1 This lack of progress across academia coupled with costly pay discrimination settlements and expanding pay transparency laws is putting the pressure on thinly-stretched college and university HR teams to get pay equity right — as efficiently as possible. Traditional approaches can't meet these new expectations, but technology puts it within reach.
Higher education institutions can lead the way in fair pay.
We think of education as a great equalizer, and we look to our elite universities to provide moral leadership and to model best practices. Higher ed should and could be the first industry in the country to hit gender parity."
Andrea Silbert
President of Eos (which oversees
the Women's Power Gap Initiative)2
Colleges and universities that want to be at the forefront of pay equity innovation are up-leveling their strategies, adopting technology like Syndio's pay equity software to drive efficiency, and becoming more transparent on progress. What are the trends and how do you know if your approach is stacking up?
The Old Way
The New Way
The Old Way
narrowly focuses on gender and base salary, leaving many pay disparities undetected
The New Way
is comprehensive, taking into account all applicable protected categories and analyzing all components of compensation to ensure true fairness for all groups
The Old Way
looks at pay equity once per year to find and fix pay issues, allowing disparities to crop up and grow over time
The New Way
embeds fairness into all pay decisions and policies to mitigate pay issues before they crop up and grow
The Old Way
is manual, error prone, subject to data breach, and requires data science skills, legal expertise, and lots of time that most HR and compensation professionals don't have
The New Way
puts more control in the hands of HR and compensation teams with easy-to-use technology, real-time analysis, and proven methodologies built by industry experts
The Old Way
often siloes efforts, making it a challenge to get an accurate, big picture view of pay equity and apply processes consistently
The New Way
provides a central hub for holistic compensation analysis and increased ability to investigate systemic root issues of pay inequities
The Old Way
becomes more time-consuming and costly with increasing complexities within employee cohorts
The New Way
can quickly iterate to dial in calculations for different staff and faculty types
The Old Way
avoids transparency and keeps faculty and staff in the dark
The New Way
arms HR teams with data visualization and reporting to clearly communicate results and findings to stakeholders — helping achieve buy-in, build a positive employer reputation, and attract and retain top academic talent
The bar for pay equity will only continue to rise with new pay scale and pay gap disclosure laws, as well as pressure for transparency from faculty and staff, students, alumni donors, boards, and the public. Are you adopting solutions today that set you up for the standards of the future?
Proven technology & expertise that simplifies pay equity
Leading higher education institutions are turning to Syndio for agile technology that makes analyses fast and easy, while helping maintain pay equity over time. And with our platform, you get always-on, patent-pending technology backed by legal, data science, and compensation experts.
PayEQTM
Rapidly analyze and resolve pay disparities with an enterprise-grade platform designed for global compliance.
Pay FinderTM
Ensure starting salaries are fair and equitable with real-time insights and recommendations for every new hire.
Pay Policy AnalyticsTM
Analyze the impacts your policies have on compensation to tell you if they're working as intended and if they are fair.
Expert Advisors
Using proven practices and methodologies, partner with our team of experts, who provide ongoing expert best practice, data science, and communications consulting and support.
Being one of the first top ten public universities to implement third-party verified fair pay practices is another example of how we strive to provide fair and equitable treatment to all our co-workers."
Ramona Agrela
Chief Human Resources Officer
and Vice Chancellor of UCI
Case Study
University of California, Irvine Uses Syndio to Embed Pay Equity, Increase Transparency, and Build Trust
UCI, a top public university in the U.S., turned to Syndio to extend their pay equity analysis beyond departmental silos and power a consistent, cross-organizational process. This proactive approach ultimately fostered improved communication and trust with employees by proving the university’s commitment to fairness — including earning a Fair Pay Workplace certification.
Blog Article
How Colleges & Universities Can Use Software to Establish a Holistic, Data-backed Approach to Pay Equity
See how colleges and universities can use pay equity software to build the foundation of a modern, data-backed pay equity program that provides a central, big picture view of the overall state of pay equity within their organization.
Guide
The New Way to Fair Pay: How to Master Pay Equity in a Changing World
Find out how a modern approach to pay equity will impact your academic institution and learn the four steps you can take to move your organization to an ongoing, proactive pay equity strategy.
A modern, efficient pay equity strategy for colleges and universities.
Already a Syndio customer?
Reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
1 Women's Power Gap / Eos Foundation, The Power Gap Among Top Earners at America's Elite Universities: 2021 Study, 2021
2 University Business, Equal pay? It's not happening at elite universities, 2021