The Equal Opportunities Commission

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The Equal Opportunities Commission

• Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value

18th March 2000
Aon Consulting HK Ltd
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The HR Perspectiveby

• Patrick Maule

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Is there a problem?
Yes of course there is!
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Is it a big problem?
I don't think so !

• On the whole HK has a pretty good record of equal
  pay for equal jobs
• amongst female stereotyped jobs almost certainly
  there will be some pay inequality.

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Some discrimination may occur by means of job
classification

• Male Title Female title
• Salesman Shop assistant
• Administrator Secretary
• Chef Cook
• Technician Operator

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The question is therefore
is the medicine worse than the disease?
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How would we safeguard against unequal pay for
work of like value

• Needs an objective method of job evaluation
• ideally it needs a universal method of evaluation
• need to identify objective measurement criteria
• need skilled people to undertake it
• process needs to be free of sex bias at all
  stages
• need great wisdom and skill in applying it
  

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Job Evaluation

• Why do we currently have job evaluation
• Mainly used as basis of establishing fair pay
  structure and
• for comparing (benchmarking) salaries company to
  company
• helps define job grades
• helps cluster jobs of similar size into the
  same pay range
• is a necessary tool for companies who want open
  and objective compensation system

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Job Evaluation in HK

• There is no clear data on the extent to which HK
  companies adopt job evaluation techniques
• However, IHRM Survey of HR practices in HK (1998)
  revealed
• JE accounted for 3.4 of time spent by HR
  practitioners (13th item out of 16)
• JE ranked as 10th most important out of 15 items
  in last 3 years
• JE ranked 18th most important out of 25 in next 3
  years

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Job Evaluation

• Common systems of JE
• Weighted factor points analysis eg Hay system
• Paired comparison
• Whole job ranking
• all depend on written job descriptions
• all have set of rules or scoring methods
• all require lots of personal judgement

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The opportunities for sex bias

• The identification of the factors in the analysis
• eg sustained physical effort, working conditions,
  exposure to hazards
• weighting between factors
• definitions of the factors
• scores assigned to each level
• number of levels hence the steps in scores
• maintenance procedures cont

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The opportunities for sex bias

• identification of benchmark jobs
• selecting grade boundaries
• dealing with boundary scores
• red circling
• sore thumbing
• appeals

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Potential impact of the legislation

• Companies without JE would be particularly
  exposed to being challenge
• Implementing a sufficiently thorough JE system is
  major undertaking
• Ensuring there is no bias in the system is even
  more complex
• Very few companies use JE at the moment
• Responsible employers may feel forced to do it
• Others would prefer to risk prosecution

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Potential impact of the legislation

• In an environment where the general practice is
  not to have HR let alone JE it is unlikely to
  make much difference
• once you evaluate jobs far bigger problems of
  internal anomalies will appear
• its a very sophisticated tool
• it would be a wind fall to consultants and a
  nightmare to employers

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There are more important HR issues that need to
be tackled first

• the need for better/more training
• need for greater man management skills
• protection from unfair dismissal
• inequitable salaries closed systems of
  determining salaries
• favouritism nepotism
• bad working conditions
• health safety in the workplace

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There are more important Female issues that need
to be tackled

• Glass ceilings
• Lack of objective selection for promotion
• Male dominated management style
• behaviour is interpreted in male way
• alien/hostile environment for women
• if adopt same style, criticised by both men and
  women
• Lack of real partnership in developing the next
  generation
• Whilst need laws to support change, they cannot
  force changes in such deep rooted issues

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Conclusion
On a cost/benefit analysis basis
the costs are very high the benefits are
marginal
Ultimately, those who believe they are underpaid
have the option to change employer