California employers, who now face having to comply with the new Fair Pay Act that became effective on January 1, 2016, are well-advised to adopt updated compensation management strategies. Because traditional textbook approaches such as merit increase guidelines do not produce true pay equity, employers must embrace cutting edge strategies to mitigate legal risks as well as to manage payroll costs. Even in the absence of case law proving that two jobs are “substantially similar” (or not), it demands the application of innovative approaches to internal job evaluation and classification in addition to routine labor market analysis. After establishing job comparability, employers may want to consider new ways to make pay decisions with a focus on actual resulting salaries and wages, not just on what percentage increases are granted. This session will introduce and explain enhanced strategies to:

• Establish relative job values based on criteria that can be applied both within and across disciplines as a part of pricing and classifying them as the framework for making pay decisions

• Determine base pay adjustments that actually result in equitable wages and salaries in consideration of both costs and legal requirements.