As pay transparency legislation continues to expand across the globe, organizations are increasingly required to report on their gender pay gaps. Thus, most pay equity analyses for global companies are focused on gender. In the U.S., we’ve found that pay equity analyses go slightly deeper to include race/ethnicity along with gender.

While this focus is critical, it leaves other protected classes — such as disability status — underexplored. Expanding your pay equity analysis to include disability is not only important from an ethical standpoint — it’s prudent to do so to comply with legal requirements.

Why Expand the Scope?

As we’ve previously covered, conducting an intersectional analysis across multiple protected classes ensures you are capturing all relevant factors in a regression analysis. This will help you uncover pay inequities across all of these classes with enhanced accuracy. Thus, your pay remediation efforts will be more effective.

In addition, utilizing this approach and including disability into your analysis enables you to easily comply with U.S. and European laws. In the U.S., organizations must comply with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits pay discrimination based on disability. Organizations in the European Union must comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires companies to report on the composition of people with disabilities in its workforce and to highlight policies to combat disability discrimination.

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According to the CDC, more than 70 million adults in the U.S. reported a disability in 2022. In the EU, an estimated 101 million people over the age of 16 (27% of the population) had some form of a disability in 2023. This represents a significant chunk of the workforce in the U.S. and Europe.

Thus, if you aren’t accounting for disability status in your pay equity analyses, there could be hidden pay inequities that open you up to litigation.

Overcoming Challenges

Expanding pay equity analysis to include dimensions like disability status may pose administrative challenges, but it is achievable with the right tools and approach. Key steps include:

  1. Evaluate your data: Assess whether your organization collects data on disability status and other underrepresented dimensions of diversity. If not, consider implementing voluntary self-identification campaigns, ensuring data privacy and compliance.
  2. Leverage technology: Utilize advanced pay equity analysis platforms like Trusaic’s PayParity®. Our technology is designed to analyze any protected class, including disability, providing actionable insights to help organizations address inequities.
  3. Engage stakeholders: Foster a culture of equity by involving leadership, HR teams, and employees in discussions about expanding pay equity efforts.
  4. Educate your workforce: Increase awareness of the importance of pay equity across all protected classes, highlighting the benefits for individuals and the organization.

Regulatory Context: Staying Ahead of Compliance

The regulatory landscape is evolving rapidly. In addition to the ADA and CSRD, various national and international initiatives are driving the inclusion of disability status and other dimensions in workplace equity efforts, including the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

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Organizations that proactively address these changes position themselves as leaders in Workplace Equity®, while those that lag behind risk non-compliance and reputational harm.

How Trusaic Can Help

Trusaic’s PayParity® solution is uniquely equipped to support organizations in expanding their pay equity efforts. Our platform enables businesses to:

  • Conduct comprehensive pay equity analyses across multiple dimensions of diversity.
  • Identify and address disparities with precision and confidence.
  • Stay compliant with global regulations while fostering a culture of equity.

By partnering with Trusaic, organizations gain access to cutting-edge tools and expert guidance to navigate the complexities of expanded pay equity analysis.

An important part of your due diligence in selecting a pay equity software provider is ensuring that the solution is backed by robust methodology and a foundation of compliance.

Trusaic’s pay equity software solution analyzes compensation and benefits data directly from your HRIS system to uncover pay inequities across gender, race/ethnicity, disability, age, and more. Conduct proactive or compliance-driven analyses to pinpoint disparities, reduce legal risk, and build trust by ensuring fair, transparent pay practices across your workforce.

And when you choose PayParity, you have access to our innovative R.O.S.A. tool. While traditional pay equity software is limited and leaves you stuck in a frustrating cycle of “Whack a Mole” with your remediation approach, our solution is able to run hundreds of analyses in parallel. This enables you to address inequities where they will have the most impact on pay equity while optimizing your remediation budget.

With Trusaic, you can proceed with confidence including disability in your pay equity analyses, knowing you are working toward achieving pay equity with the backing of a robust methodology that is accurate and explainable to comply with fast changing regulations.