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GoodWell Launches ‘Mind the Gap’ Initiative to Measure Pay Inequity

Transparency and uniform standards will be key to ending gender, racial pay gap, according to workplace certification company

BOISE, IDAHO, USA, February 12, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Without a uniform, universally accepted and publicly available measurement methodology, companies large and small that want to eradicate the pay gap are hard-pressed to know where to start.

A new initiative by GoodWell, a workplace certification company, dubbed Mind the Gap, aims to aggregate the many ways companies are measuring gender and racial inequity in order to bring uniform and transparent standards to this pervasive problem for the first time.

“The fundamental problem is that none of these companies that say they want to measure and correct a documented pay gap actually disclose how they measured their own pay gaps,” said GoodWell’s founder and president, Pete Gombert.

Currently, companies might participate in the White House Equal Pay Pledge or Glassdoor Equal Pay Pledge, or even join in Bloomberg’s new Gender Equality Index, but the details are lacking as to how each certification measures the pay gap.

“We don’t know if we are comparing apples to apples,” explained Gombert, a CPA turned serial entrepreneur. “What we need -- and what we aim to build through Mind the Gap -- is the equivalent of GAAP, which are generally accepted accounting principles for measurement of pay equity.”

Currently, just GoodWell and Glassdoor make their methodologies publicly available, which allows corporate, government and nonprofit leaders to assess their pay gaps free of charge. The problem, Gombert says, is that many organizations use proprietary measurement tools that are not universally accepted.

“Companies like Salesforce, Adobe and Citigroup have done the hard work of developing methodologies,” he said. “But because they have not shared them with the world, employees, peer companies, and the general public are left to guess how pay disparity was calculated.”

Mind the Gap will collect and confidentially analyze all of the methodologies. The initiative will highlight their similarities and differences and gather experts to produce a final methodology to in the third quarter this year that will be made available to everyone, free of charge.

“To correct the gap, we first need to accurately measure it, and include not just men and women but also factor in data around race, age, religion, and sexual orientation,” Gombert said.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal to pay individuals differently based on gender. However, because such cases are nearly impossible to prove (http://fortune.com/2016/04/12/how-to-sue-for-gender-pay-discrimination/), the burden still lies with the employer to ensure equity in compensation.

About GoodWell
GoodWell, a public benefit corporation, is an independent performance standard that strengthens employee satisfaction by certifying fair, equitable and humane workplace practices. GoodWell’s certified organizations range from small businesses to global nonprofits and large municipalities. Its 100 percent metrics-based certification system provides actionable management insights and a framework for benchmarking and improvement. These human metrics are designed to work for any employer regardless of size, industry, geography or organizational structure. For more information about becoming certified, visit www.goodwellworld.com.

Caitlin Copple Masingill
Oliver Russell
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