4 of April, 2025

There are still inequalities between men and women within a company. To prevent this, it is interesting to conduct a pay equity audit on a regular basis.

If you want to know the current situation of your company, the most effective thing is to carry out a pay equity audit. You can also rely on the help of HR reports. Learn all about how to do it in this article where all doubts are cleared up. Take note!

What is a salary equality audit

Are there salary inequalities between men and women in my company? Or in schedules and the facilities provided for them? Is there parity in management positions?

I’m sure you’ve asked yourself these kinds of questions before. The best way to answer them is with a pay equity audit.

A pay equity audit is one that is conducted to collect information about the remuneration system that has been implemented in the organization. The goal is to see if it complies with effective equality among all employees, regardless of gender.

Thus, it aims to reduce the current wage gap by promoting education in gender equality.

What should the salary or retributive audit contain

The content of this type of analysis is set by article 8 of Royal Decree 902/2020 on wage equality between men and women, which requires two obligations for all entities:

Perform the diagnosis of the wage situation.
Establish an action plan to correct inequalities.

This must be carried out within the framework of the Equality Plan that must be implemented in the company, either voluntarily or mandatorily.

Types of existing audits

To carry out the equality plan and the pay equity audit, two different types of the same can be conducted:

Internal: collects data and provides a diagnosis of the situation in which the plan implemented by the organization is found, as well as the differences that indicate the wage gap. Here you can detect the causes or triggers of it and outline the actions to be executed.
External: in this case, the study is done by an accredited person in the field and completely independent of the company. It must be conducted 12 months after the start of the Equality Plan and repeated every three years.

How to conduct a salary equality audit

While there is no official model for conducting a wage or remuneration audit in a company, certain relevant aspects can be considered for the analysis and detection of a wage gap within the organization.

Therefore, here are some of the steps you should follow to perform your pay equity audit:

Define the relevant factors to review

Before starting the investigation and analysis, it is advisable to establish a valuation system for each position. In this way, the collected information will be relevant, as it will allow comparisons and segmentation by different groups.

Among the aspects to consider in the pay equity audit are:

Seniority of each employee in the company.
The performance evaluation of the worker through job surveys.
Personal situation.
The professional category and academic level of each one.
Distribution of personnel carried out.
Social benefits and extra-salary remunerations that exist.

Segment employees

Once you have all the data mentioned above, you should make a segmentation of similar workers. This way you can analyze and find the causes that influence the wage gap.

Similarly, it allows you to correct the difficulties that exist and ensure transparency. This division can be made based on category or professional characteristics, establishing a classification to determine similarities and differences between them.

For this, personnel management software, like that of Sesame HR, can be useful, as they have all the staff information.

Establish comparisons

Once the factors of the pay equity audit are decided and segmented, you can compare among staff members with the same characteristics, or who hold similar jobs.

Analyze and review the obtained information

If you want to analyze the information obtained in the pay equity audit, the following questions should be asked:

Are there certain inequalities, in tasks, schedules or salaries of the men and women of the entity?
How many women are in management positions? How do their wages influence the analysis?
Can the process of personnel selection cause this discrimination?

The purpose of asking these questions is to detect possible patterns or causes in the collected data, as well as inequalities in the team’s salary record.

Develop an action plan and execute it

This step is crucial, as the final goal of such a pay equity audit is to define a strategy with clear and feasible actions, deadlines and objectives. Thus, those responsible will be able to implement it to avoid the wage gap.

Advantages of having a pay equity audit

As we have explained, a pay equity audit is a process that helps companies ensure that their employees of all genders, races, ethnicities and other protected characteristics are being paid fairly and equitably for their jobs.

The benefits of having a pay equity audit include:

Reducing the risk of discrimination: as they can help companies identify and address any potential wage discrimination that occurs in their workplace. This reduces the risk of discrimination lawsuits and damage to their reputation.
Knowing the reasons that influence the wage gap.
Increasing transparency.
Improving employee morale: employees who are paid fairly and equitably are more likely to be committed to their work and to stay at their company, thereby increasing work productivity.
Attracting and retaining the best talent: entities with a history of wage equality are more likely to be seen as a good place to work, attracting and retaining talent.
Complying with the laws and establishing an equality plan, as well as a set of sanctions for these cases.

A pay equity audit can be a valuable investment for your company. Now that you know what it is and how it is done, all that remains is to get to work! Find out more information on our blog. We are your go-to HR software!

Customer-oriented, both internally and externally, specializing in the definition and implementation of HR policies, as well as talent management, recruitment, and retention. Strong leadership, communication, negotiation, organization, and team coordination skills. Over 12 years of experience in Human Resources.

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iriserrador

HR Content Specialist

How to conduct a pay equality audit within the company