Best & Worst in Employer Branding: April 2022
April’s Best & Worst is all about that money, and how we can get better at paying people the wages they deserve, no matter where they live.
The best: Airbnb goes totally remote
Remember how, a year ago, employers were like, “Who’d’ve thought remote work would be so successful?” and everyone was like, “The office is dead! We’re never going back!”
Well, now it seems a lot of employers are pretending like they never loved remote work at all, or are outright reneging on their enthusiasm for it, and calling employees back into the office. But in-office work isn’t super popular among employees, and most people are interested in a hybrid arrangement. What people really don’t want is the will-we-or-won’t-we-return-to-the-office tug-of-war that was the norm at the end of last year (reported in Fast Company by yours truly).
At this point, employees just want to know, definitively, where they will have to work. Well, Airbnb said in April that they are committing to remote work for good. The company’s CEO Brian Chesky announced on Twitter that their remote work plan has five features. He writes:
1. You can work from home or the office—whatever works best for you
2. You can move anywhere in the country, like from San Francisco to Nashville, and your compensation won't change3. You have the flexibility to live and work in 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location.
4. We’ll meet up regularly for team gatherings. Most employees will connect in person every quarter for about a week at a time (some more frequently)
5. To pull this off, we'll operate off of a multi-year roadmap with two major product releases a year, which will keep us working in a highly coordinated way
The overall arrangement and its freedom has earned Airbnb lots of positive press coverage, but especially worth noting is that the company will not adjust workers’ pay based on location.
Location-adjusted pay can be another means for pay discrimination and perpetuates the gender, racial, and disability pay gaps. For example: A company can pay $70,000 per year for a person living in Savannah and $120,000 (or more) for a person living in San Francisco—for the exact same work.
We love to see employers embracing pay equity in this way. Bravo!
Which brings me to…
The worst: employers really don’t like the new NYC pay transparency requirements
Back in December 2021, the NYC city council passed a law that requires (most) employers to include the salary range on job postings. (A quick summary of that requirement here, plus why embracing the new requirements is good for business.)
Seems easy enough, but this has a lot of companies sweating. According to an AP article, “some big corporations are uneasy about posting New York City salaries for jobs that could be done from lower-cost places. Some also fear a flood of resignations or demands for raises once current employees see what new hires can get.”
The requirement was scheduled to take effect on May 15, but the city council has just pushed back the date to November 1, reports Gwynne Hogan for Gothamist. The idea is that the council wants to “offer another opportunity for feedback,” I assume from the business community, which hasn’t made advocates of the law happy. The fear is that protections will be diluted in favor of the employers.
The gender pay gap, the racial pay gap, and the disability pay gap have been problems since always, and transparency laws are one way we can do a better job of ensuring people get the wages they deserve.
People are watching this law and others like it popping up around the country, and they’re watching as employers dig in their heels and refuse to comply. What does this say about their commitment to equity in the workplace? I’m afraid it doesn’t say nice things.
Employers that continue to fight pay transparency are in the wrong—but there’s still time to do it right. Before the law compels you to publish your pay ranges, do it yourself. Imagine what that says about your commitment to equity in the workplace.
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance writer based in Richmond, VA, who writes about workplace culture and policies, hiring, DEI, employer branding, and issues faced by women. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Fast Company, and Food Technology, among others, and has been syndicated by MSN and The Motley Fool.
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