[/spoiler]I grew up in a hard scrabble environment and although I put myself through school and have done pretty well in life, I have never allowed Degree inflation to override those with Better Talent where I could make a difference. I do the same with leveling the pay playing field. I am an older Gen Xer and have indeed seen a pay gap between Men and Women, Degreed vs Non-Degreed, as well as long standing employees vs new blood that comes in at a higher pay. As a Male leader that has worked for 2 of the major tech firms in my life, I never waited for HR to "Catch Up" and create a policy or actually "DO SOMETHING RIGHT." Where I had control over the promo, raise, bonus, Stock Package budgets, I completed my own analysis on the numbers with the help of finance to ensure that I was not missing anything, along with my careful observation of performance, commitment, output, attitude, etc. This has always resulted in elevation of some, holding flat of others that quite frankly never earned the spot they got - just because they went to an Ivy - and were often held up by others working circles around them. Then I have also pushed put people from organizations who thought they were entitled to an easy path, being out preformed by those with either no degree or from colleges that were state colleges or non ivy.
Every hiring manager, boss, influencer in reviews has the power to normalize - within a range of course- so my advice is to make this a part of your job...no excuses. Examine every year who gets paid what based on what they do. Where you have the budget, work to fix it. It can 't always be done all at once but you can gradually do it over time.
I learned this from someone who did it for me once. I had been promoted from the field into a corporate office where I was supposed to be on par in pay with my peer group but because I came from a lessor college and had worked in a field office for many years, my pay was less from the start as HR pays a premium for top school, and then those in non corporate roles get paid less. I came into the job with a huge gap in pay and in a short time it was very clear that I was significantly outperforming the Ivy's and so during my reviews she would talk me through all the places she was helping to normalize my compensation and that she would get me on par w/the others within 1.5 yrs time and she did. I took that learning and have applied on every new team I inherit, hire, etc. It's easier to do than you think. You just need to dig into and understand the math as well as where you can balance and stretch the ranges within your budget between Cost of Living increases, performance and discretionary bonus, stock, etc. It takes courage to not follow the herd on this one and take a stand by giving someone less deserved a lessor increase than HR or a formula recommends. You can often override those boxes within a range when you are plugging in who gets what in the compensation. Each company will have a different tool or spreadsheet you plug into but learn all about it, pay attention, and fight properly for what your people deserve.
With that I take a lot of pride in those I have elevated in their careers who were far more talented than those with more education. In some instances that talent was being left for dead and branded as "no future" but when you actually teased apart the output of who was doing the work, who was coming up with the ideas, who was building the relationships across the org and getting real things of value done, it was those hiding in the most least likely places. And when I elevated them, just as I knew they would, they thrived. I changed their lives forever just like someone did for me.
Save a life today, save a career, that has lasting impact far more reaching than you can imagine. It's not where they went to school. It's what they have learned, are willing to learn and do. This is every leaders responsibility who owns a performance budget. And to those of you who are parents that have daughters and sons...you need to challenge the gap in pay. I have done deep analysis on this across every firm I have worked for and even when you normalize for kids, LoA's, etc...it does exist. For those in power, shame on you for waiting for anyone else to normalize it. You need to normalize upon every Hire. You need to normalize across your team during every single performance review period - or at least as much as you can. Same job, same commitment and output, same pay period. Otherwise you will answer to the futures of your daughters some day and wonder why they are not as well off as your sons and that is not something that I would ever want to look in the mirror and say I should have/could have done more.
Disparities can be normalized when you hold the purse in any company - at least they can be brought a lot closer together - no excuses.
