Aldi ranks first for pay transparency among firms polled by PayScale

Dive Brief:

Aldi earned the top spot on PayScale's Hero Awards for Pay Transparency, announced Tuesday. The grocery store chain claimed the honor after 85% of its employees reported high pay transparency in a survey.
Restaurants and grocers "dominated" the top 10 employers on the list, PayScale said in a statement. Other employers honored include Trader Joe's (69%), Texas Roadhouse (61%) and Smith's Food and Drug Stores (58%). McKinsey & Company tied Sanderson Farms for second place, each earning a 70% rating from the employee survey.
PayScale said that organizations should consider multiple factors in determining their approach to pay transparency, from market data to culture. The benefits and compensation website looked at feedback from employees at more than 47,000 employers in determining the list.

Dive Insight:

Salary and compensation information, generally private matters in the past, have become slightly more democratized in the information age. This trend is partially due to the rise of online review culture in employment, which can be observed in the creation of platforms like Glassdoor.

Much like office culture, advancement opportunities and the onboarding experience, pay is a subject about which many employees and would-be employees now expect employers to be transparent. Results from a recent PayScale study showed that pay perception — how employees feel about their organization's approach to pay fairness and transparency — contributed more to job satisfaction and retention than the amount of pay.

“People are more likely to trust their employer if it’s clear how and why they are paid the compensation they earn. There really is no downside to sharing your organization’s approach to compensation, but there is a well-researched downside to remaining silent,” PayScale vice president Lydia Frank said in a statement emailed to HR Dive. “Employees feel better about their deal when organizations are more transparent about pay decisions and practices.”

Employers have responded to this sentiment in kind; an April 2018 poll of employers by Willis Towers Watson revealed that 53% of employers surveyed planned to make their pay decisions more transparent within the next three years, with others set to increase the use of technology solutions when making pay decisions.