I’ve had the pleasure of discussing the EUPTD with Michael Illert in a video interview.

I’ve had the pleasure to interview with Syndio’s Charlie Higgins. We discussed how the confusion in the Equal Pay landscape can be resolved through the clear conceptualisation of Gender Pay, Equal Pay, Pay Equity, and Pay Transparency; how the annual “find and fix” cycle is a treadmill, and my newly developed Pay Transparency Maturity Framework.

“Working on Equal Pay always requires a costly introduction of job grades”. This is a fallacy. Formal job grading is not a prerequisite for initial analysis. Companies can build an inexpensive proxy job grading system. Especially smaller companies will likely learn that the proxy grading can be a good estimate for Equal Pay purposes – often without the need for a costly, full-scale job grading project. Over time, the proxy can be enhanced and formalised.

This is article 3 of 3 in the series answering “what is compensation management” where I draw-up a reply that goes beyond schoolbook-responses to reflect the truly expansive nature of a Compensation Manager’s job.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive’s “5% trigger” is misunderstood – you may have a raw Gender Pay Gap >5% and no Equal Pay issue; conversely, you could have a raw Gender Pay Gap <5% and still retain Equal Pay issues.

This is article 2 of 3 in the series answering “what is compensation management” where I draw-up a reply that goes beyond schoolbook-responses to reflect the truly expansive nature of a Compensation Manager’s job.

We can’t help our anthropomorphizing brains to be upset about Scrub Mommy’s pay gap. This instigates an important question. Should gendered sponges cost the same is similar to asking whether female football players should be remunerated equally as their male counterparts. One essential aspect that often gets overlooked here is economics.

Your raw Gender Pay Gap (rGPG) is 0% - time to celebrate? This figure could mask underlying troubles. It is possible for an overall group-level rGPG to be 0% while department-level rGPGs maintain pay gaps.

What are you actually managing – is it Gender Pay, Equal Pay, Pay Equity or Pay Transparency? These terms are too often used interchangeably, despite representing distinct constructs with fundamentally different implications. What matters is precision. Managers and leaders working in this space must deliberately distinguish between these constructs, choose language carefully, and align measurement, governance, and action accordingly. Only with this clarity can organisations manage pay credibly.

It’s time to expand the conversation from demographic diversity into cognitive diversity. Why should you care? Because cognitive diversity is even more strongly linked to performance than demographic diversity alone. I have developed a practical framework for translating cognitive diversity into company practice.