Global Pay Transparency: An Employee Perspective

Abstract

Countries differ with regard to culture, employment laws and employment traditions and practices, all of which suggest that employees may have different perceptions of the degree to which their company is transparent about pay as well as their own preferences for pay transparency. This study examines, from an employee perspective, how pay transparency and pay transparency preferences differ across multiple countries in Central America, North America and Europe. Pay communications, pay transparency and pay transparency preferences differed among respondents of the countries studied. However, Hofstede’s culture l country measures, uncertainty avoidance, lower levels of individualism and lower levels of power distance were not associated with preferences for pay transparency as might be expected from the literature. Although pay transparency preferences are not related to employee perceptions regarding employer pay communications, pay transparency preferences are related to pay transparency.