Pay Equity in Practice: Moving Beyond Good Intentions

By Che’ Blackmon

The company issued a press release celebrating their commitment to pay equity. They formed a task force. They hosted a lunch-and-learn. They added a diversity statement to their careers page.

Then nothing changed.

A year later, Black women in the organization were still earning 63 cents for every dollar paid to white men in similar roles. Latina women earned 57 cents. The gap persisted across departments, levels, and tenure. When employees raised concerns, they were told the organization was “working on it” and that these things “take time.”

How much time, exactly, does it take to pay people fairly? 💰

Pay equity isn’t a aspirational goal or a nice-to-have initiative. It’s a fundamental aspect of organizational integrity. Yet despite decades of conversations about equal pay, the wage gap remains stubbornly persistent—and for Black women and other women of color, it’s getting wider, not narrower.

Good intentions don’t close wage gaps. Intentional action does.

The State of Pay Inequity: The Numbers Tell the Story

According to the National Women’s Law Center, in 2024, women overall were paid 84 cents for every dollar paid to men. But that statistic masks significant disparities:

Black women are paid approximately 67 cents on the dollar compared to white men
Native American women are paid approximately 60 cents on the dollar
Latina women are paid approximately 57 cents on the dollar
Asian American women’s pay varies significantly by ethnicity, with some groups facing substantial gaps

These aren’t minor discrepancies. Over a 40-year career, the average Black woman loses more than $946,000 due to the wage gap. That’s generational wealth denied. That’s retirement security diminished. That’s economic power systematically withheld.

And before someone suggests this is simply about educational attainment or career choices, the data refutes that narrative. Research from the American Association of University Women shows that even when controlling for education, occupation, hours worked, and years of experience, unexplained pay gaps persist. Black women with advanced degrees often earn less than white men with only bachelor’s degrees.

This isn’t accidental. It’s structural.

Why Good Intentions Fail 🚫

Most organizations genuinely believe they pay fairly. They have HR policies. They conduct market analyses. They claim to value diversity. Yet the gaps remain. Why?

1. Opacity Protects Inequity

When salary information is treated as confidential and employees are discouraged (or prohibited) from discussing compensation, inequities hide in plain sight. Pay secrecy policies overwhelmingly benefit employers, not employees, and they disproportionately harm women and people of color who lack information to negotiate effectively.

2. Negotiation Gaps Are Framed as Individual Failures

Women—and especially Black women—are often told they need to “negotiate better” or “advocate for themselves more effectively.” But research shows that women who negotiate assertively face social penalties that men don’t. They’re perceived as difficult, aggressive, or ungrateful. This is particularly acute for Black women, who navigate both gendered and racialized expectations about assertiveness and ambition.

Framing pay inequity as a negotiation skills problem places the burden on individuals to fix a systemic issue. As I write in “Rise & Thrive: A Black Woman’s Blueprint for Leadership Excellence,” Black women already perform extraordinary amounts of additional labor—code-switching, managing bias, building credibility from scratch—without additional compensation. Asking them to also solve pay inequity through better negotiation is adding insult to financial injury.

3. Subjective Criteria Enable Bias

When decisions about pay, promotions, and performance ratings rely on subjective assessments like “leadership potential,” “cultural fit,” or “executive presence,” bias flourishes. Research consistently shows that these vague criteria are applied inconsistently and tend to favor people who look like existing leadership—which in most organizations means white men.

4. Historical Inequities Compound Over Time

If your starting salary is lower because of bias in the hiring process, and your raises are calculated as percentages of your current salary, the gap widens with every pay cycle. Over a career, these compounding disparities create massive wealth differences.

5. Lack of Accountability 📊

Organizations announce commitments to pay equity, but few establish measurable goals, transparent timelines, or consequences for failing to achieve equity. Without accountability mechanisms, pay equity remains aspirational rather than operational.

What Pay Equity Actually Requires

Moving from intention to action means implementing concrete, measurable practices that address the root causes of pay disparities.

Conduct Comprehensive Pay Audits

A real pay audit isn’t a one-time HR project. It’s an ongoing diagnostic process that examines:

Base salary differences by gender, race, and other demographics
Bonus and incentive compensation gaps
Benefits utilization and access
Promotion rates and timelines
Starting salary offers for new hires

The audit should control for legitimate factors like experience, education, and performance ratings—but also question whether those factors themselves reflect bias. For example, if performance ratings consistently rank Black women lower than their peers, is that an accurate assessment or evidence of biased evaluation?

There was a technology company that conducted a pay audit and discovered that women were consistently offered lower starting salaries than men with identical qualifications. The issue wasn’t in their promotion or raise processes—it was happening at the point of entry. They revised their offer process to use standardized salary bands and removed salary history questions from their hiring process, which helped close the gap significantly.

Establish Transparent Salary Bands 💎

Salary transparency is one of the most effective tools for achieving pay equity. When organizations publish salary ranges for roles and levels, several things happen:

Employees can assess whether they’re being paid fairly
Managers can’t make arbitrary compensation decisions
Negotiation becomes less about individual savvy and more about organizational standards
Pay disparities become visible and therefore addressable

Some organizations worry that transparency will create dissatisfaction or competition. Research suggests the opposite: employees in organizations with pay transparency report higher levels of trust and perceive their compensation as fairer, even when they’re not the highest earners.

Standardize Hiring and Promotion Processes

Bias thrives in ambiguity. Structured processes reduce opportunities for bias to influence decisions:

Use consistent interview questions and scoring rubrics
Require multiple interviewers and aggregate their assessments
Remove salary history questions from applications and interviews (better yet, operate in jurisdictions where this is legally prohibited)
Make job descriptions explicit about required qualifications vs. “nice to have” preferences
Establish clear promotion criteria that are applied consistently

As I discuss in “Mastering a High-Value Company Culture,” high-value organizations don’t leave critical processes to individual manager discretion. They build systems that produce equitable outcomes by design.

Address the “Motherhood Penalty” and Caregiving Bias 👶🏾

Research shows that mothers face wage penalties while fathers often receive wage premiums—a disparity that reflects gendered assumptions about commitment and competence. Black mothers face compounded penalties.

Organizations committed to pay equity must examine:

Whether parents (especially mothers) are being passed over for high-visibility assignments
How parental leave affects performance ratings and raises
Whether flexible work arrangements impact compensation or promotion eligibility
How caregiving responsibilities (for children, aging parents, etc.) are accommodated

Pay equity isn’t just about base salary—it’s about ensuring that life circumstances don’t create permanent economic disadvantages.

Make Pay Equity Someone’s Job 🎯

Too often, pay equity is everyone’s responsibility, which means it’s no one’s responsibility. Assign accountability:

Designate an executive sponsor for pay equity initiatives
Include pay equity metrics in leadership performance evaluations
Establish a cross-functional team with authority and resources
Report progress regularly to the board and workforce
Tie executive compensation to achieving equity goals

Create Paths to Promotion for Traditionally Overlooked Talent

Pay equity isn’t only about equal pay for equal work—it’s also about equal access to higher-paying roles. If Black women are clustered in lower-paying positions and underrepresented in senior leadership, wage gaps will persist even if pay within levels is equitable.

This requires:

Identifying high-potential Black women and women of color early
Providing sponsorship, not just mentorship
Creating stretch assignments and leadership development opportunities
Examining whether “high-potential” criteria reflect diverse paths to leadership
Addressing attrition patterns that disproportionately affect women of color

Research from McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report consistently shows that Black women are the most ambitious demographic in corporate America—more likely than any other group to want promotions to senior leadership. Yet they face the steepest barriers. That’s not a pipeline problem. That’s a systemic barrier problem.

Real-World Models: What Success Looks Like ✨

Some organizations are moving beyond intentions to measurable action:

Salesforce conducted a comprehensive pay audit and invested $16 million to address unexplained pay differences. They repeat the audit annually and have continued to make adjustments, recognizing that pay equity requires ongoing vigilance, not one-time fixes.

Buffer, a fully remote software company, publishes every employee’s salary online. Their radical transparency includes the formula they use to calculate salaries, removing subjectivity and negotiation from the equation entirely.

Starbucks achieved 100% gender pay equity in the U.S. and is working toward the same goal globally. They publish their progress annually and have committed to transparency and accountability in their equity journey.

These aren’t perfect organizations—no organization is. But they demonstrate that pay equity is achievable when organizations commit resources, establish accountability, and measure progress.

The Business Case (Beyond Basic Fairness)

While the moral case for pay equity should be sufficient, organizational leaders often need to understand the business implications:

Attraction and Retention: Top talent—especially younger workers—increasingly demand transparency and equity. Organizations known for pay disparities struggle to attract and retain high performers.

Engagement and Productivity: When employees believe they’re paid fairly, engagement increases. Research from Glassdoor shows that employees who feel fairly compensated are more likely to recommend their employer and less likely to search for other jobs.

Legal and Reputational Risk: Pay discrimination lawsuits are expensive, time-consuming, and damaging to brand reputation. Proactive equity efforts mitigate these risks.

Innovation: Diverse teams produce better business outcomes, but only when diverse talent is valued equitably. Pay disparities signal that some contributions matter less than others, which stifles the innovation that diversity promises.

As I emphasize in “High-Value Leadership: Transforming Organizations Through Purposeful Culture,” high-value organizations recognize that equity isn’t a cost—it’s an investment in organizational excellence. When you pay people fairly, you signal that their contributions matter. When you don’t, you signal the opposite, regardless of what your diversity statement says.

Common Objections (and Responses) 🤔

“We can’t afford to close the gap immediately.”

Then create a transparent, time-bound plan with interim milestones. Employees are more patient with gradual progress than with indefinite delays. The key is demonstrating genuine commitment through consistent action.

“Our pay is based on market rates, and market rates reflect these disparities.”

Market rates often reflect historical discrimination. Choosing to perpetuate those disparities because “that’s what the market pays” is choosing to perpetuate discrimination. High-value organizations lead markets; they don’t simply follow them.

“We pay for performance, and performance varies.”

That’s fair—if your performance evaluation system is truly objective and unbiased. But research shows that performance ratings themselves often reflect bias, with women and people of color rated lower for identical performance. Before claiming that pay differences reflect performance differences, audit your performance management system.

“Employees know they can negotiate.”

Relying on negotiation as the primary mechanism for fair pay advantages those who have information, confidence, and freedom from stereotype threat. It’s not a neutral process. Standardized pay practices are more equitable than negotiation-based systems.

Individual Strategies: What You Can Do Today 💪🏾

While systemic change is essential, individuals can also take strategic action:

Research Your Worth

Use resources like Glassdoor, Payscale, and industry salary surveys to understand market rates for your role, experience, and location. Join professional associations that provide salary data. Talk to peers (in compliance with your organization’s policies and legal protections—in many jurisdictions, discussing salary is legally protected).

Document Your Value

Keep detailed records of your contributions, accomplishments, and impact. Quantify results wherever possible. This documentation becomes essential during compensation conversations.

Know Your Rights

In many states, employers cannot ask about salary history. Some jurisdictions require salary ranges in job postings. Some states explicitly protect employees’ rights to discuss compensation. Understand the legal landscape in your location.

Practice the Conversation

Compensation negotiations can feel uncomfortable, especially for Black women who face stereotype threat. Practice with a trusted colleague, mentor, or coach. Anticipate objections and prepare responses. As I discuss in “Rise & Thrive,” preparation builds confidence, and confidence impacts outcomes.

Consider the Total Package

If base salary adjustments aren’t immediately available, negotiate other components: bonuses, equity, professional development budgets, title changes that position you for future increases, or flexible work arrangements that provide value.

Know When to Walk

Sometimes the most powerful negotiation tactic is being willing to leave. If an organization consistently undervalues your contributions despite evidence of your worth, that’s important information. High-value leaders recognize their worth and make decisions accordingly.

Discussion Questions 💭

When was the last time your organization conducted a comprehensive pay equity audit? What did it reveal, and what actions resulted?
How transparent is compensation in your organization? Do employees know the salary ranges for their roles and levels? Should they?
What would it look like for your organization to move from aspirational commitments to measurable accountability on pay equity?
How do your performance evaluation and promotion processes create opportunities for bias to influence compensation decisions?
If you discovered significant pay disparities in your organization tomorrow, what would a responsible response plan include? Who would be accountable for implementation?
For individual contributors: Do you know whether you’re being paid fairly relative to your peers? If not, what’s preventing you from finding out?

Next Steps: Take Action Today 🚀

For Organizational Leaders:

Schedule a comprehensive pay equity audit for the next quarter
Review and revise your compensation philosophy to explicitly address equity
Establish transparent salary bands for all roles and levels
Create an accountability structure with specific goals, timelines, and consequences
Examine whether your promotion and performance management processes introduce bias

For HR and People Operations:

Remove salary history questions from your hiring process
Standardize interview and evaluation processes
Provide training on bias in compensation decisions
Create dashboards that track pay equity metrics in real time
Develop communication strategies to increase transparency

For Individual Contributors:

Research market rates for your role and experience level
Document your contributions and quantifiable impact
Schedule a compensation conversation with your manager
Connect with mentors or coaches who can provide guidance on negotiation
Know your legal rights regarding salary discussions and pay equity

For Everyone:

Challenge the notion that pay disparities are inevitable or acceptable
Support colleagues who raise concerns about pay equity
Vote for policies and leaders who prioritize economic justice
Hold organizations accountable for their public commitments

Work With Che’ Blackmon Consulting

Is your organization ready to move from pay equity intentions to pay equity results?

Che’ Blackmon Consulting partners with organizations to conduct comprehensive pay equity audits, design compensation systems that produce equitable outcomes, and build high-value cultures where all talent is valued fairly.

Our services include:

Comprehensive compensation audits and gap analysis
Compensation system design and salary band development
Leadership training on equitable pay practices
Organizational culture assessments
Strategic planning for sustainable equity initiatives

We don’t just identify problems—we partner with you to implement solutions that work.

Ready to ensure your people are paid what they’re worth?

📧 admin@cheblackmon.com
📞 888.369.7243
🌐 cheblackmon.com

Pay equity isn’t complex. It just requires the will to act and the courage to change. The question isn’t whether your organization can afford to achieve pay equity. It’s whether you can afford not to.

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