Salary Audit and Job Evaluation
December 24, 2021.
Maria Iglesias
As indicated by the Institute for Women and Equal Opportunities, the wage gap is a persistent and universal phenomenon that affects all labor markets to a greater or lesser extent.
To facilitate and promote the reduction of the wage gap, the administration promotes the creation of salary registers (with information disaggregated by sex) in companies. With these registers we obtain an overview of the salary policy of each company and identify the existing salary gaps between women and men.
Remember at this point that the Salary Register is mandatory for all companies with salaried personnel, regardless of their number of employees, their sector, the structure or the size of the company.
- SALARY AUDIT
As for the Salary Audit, it is a tool that works with the data provided by the Salary Register itself, applying new parameters. Such as the type of contract, the percentage of the working day or the number of children of the company’s employees.
The application of these parameters to the salary study of the register allows us to identify in greater detail the possible causes of salary differences. This in turn allows us to plan measures and actions aimed at reducing these differences in a more concrete and effective way.
The audit will therefore contain new results on what was actually paid to the employees of a company in the previous year. Working on the basis of the data obtained in the salary register and using the job as a categorization when creating the professional groups: so that the work with the data provided by the register and by the audit is coherent. In both reports, the professional groupings (of jobs that are the same) must be made based on the same classification. At this point and due to the obligation that the audit be carried out based on the job, we are also obliged to carry out the salary record for groups of jobs that are equal to each other.
- JOB EVALUATION
As indicated by the Workers’ Statute in its article 28: “The employer is obliged to pay for the provision of a job of equal value the same remuneration, satisfied directly or indirectly, and whatever the nature of the same, salary or extra-salary, without any discrimination based on sex in any of the elements or conditions of the same”
This leads to the prior need to carry out a Job Evaluation (VPT). This job evaluation must also be carried out from a gender perspective, with the evaluation of points by factor being the most appropriate, according to the ILO.
This objective and analytical tool must be able to compare the jobs included in the company’s job catalogue with each other, taking as a reference the factors relevant to the company and giving them a relative weight at the company level and for each of the jobs individually.
For each of the jobs, we will take into account the subfactors that will have been previously chosen through the design of the company’s own job evaluation system and we will give them a score based on a specific scale defined by subfactor or competence in relation to a level of demand that will also have been specified. The assignment of this score to each subfactor will give each job a total of points. This total obtained will determine the value of the job within the organization, which will be the job evaluation.
Here is an example of how some subfactors or competencies are valued at job level:
| Factor | Subfactor | Rating | Points |
| Knowledge and skills | Dexterity | Low | 3 |
| Knowledge and skills | English-language | Not necessary | 0 |
| Responsibility | Supervision | Shared responsibility | 5 |
| Working conditions | Possibility of traveling | Quite necessary | 7 |
With regard to the gender perspective, it will also be necessary to identify whether the subfactors or competencies are masculinized, feminized or neutral at the company level. Depending on the weight of each subfactor on each position, we will be able to identify, in this way, the masculinization, feminization or neutrality of each job. This identification will also help us when creating new measures or actions in terms of equality at the HR level: in terms of selection, for example, trying to promote the hiring of women in jobs that are currently masculinized.
As we are seeing, the VPT will add a great deal of content to the HR policies of companies. It will not be limited to being just a tool aimed at working on salary matters.
- ITSS
In terms of salaries, the Labour and Social Security Inspection has launched over the last year (and will continue to launch over the next year) campaigns to control the salary register. Starting with the obligation to have a salary audit for companies with more than 50 workers, it will proceed to extend its control radius to the audit itself and may request it from companies (it must be included in their Equality Plan).
Remember that failing to comply with the obligation to have the Salary Audit available can result in a fine of up to €7,200 (LISOS) for the company.
- DEVELOPMENT OF HR PLANS AND AUTOMATION
The moment of generating the Salary Audit and the Job Evaluation can also be an appropriate time to review our job catalogue and the assignment of each position to each of the employees within the company (to avoid duplications, internal dysfunctions, etc.)
It is true that the administrative workload is already significant for the HR departments of companies and for the labor areas in professional offices.
For this reason, it is vitally important to have expert advice and to have technological tools suitable for managing salary data and capable of providing full coverage of legal compliance.
Carrying out the salary audit and its corresponding VPT manually may mean having to outsource this service to a consultancy firm that is an expert in the field (to whom we will have to provide the data that we manage in our payroll software) or hiring a person to take care of this task for a period of time of no less than one month (which will be extended depending on the volume of data to be processed).
The use of efficient technology will help reduce the workload and minimize the costs derived from this new legal obligation, a task for HR professionals. It will also help in the development of these departments and will expand their influence at a strategic level within companies.
On the other hand, as can be predicted, the gender perspective will continue to closely and transversally affect the different labor and HR policies in companies, so we will have to be prepared to continue to assume the appearance of new trends, rules and regulations aimed at achieving effective equality between women and men in the business field.
For more information contact
93 872 69 44