Forcing employers toreveal their gender pay gaps is making them think

强迫雇员揭露自身性别上薪酬差异使其深思

Despiteits flaws, the new obligation could spark a change in employment practices

尽管并不完美，新的义务可能为雇用惯例带来变化。

BRITAIN has one of the widest gender pay gaps in Europe. Forevery pound that men earn, women make 80p, and the disparity has moved littlein 15 years. Vowing to end this “scandal” within a generation, in 2015 the thenprime minister, David Cameron, pushed through a policy long resisted bybusinesses. Organisations with 250 or more employees would have to publish thegap in hourly pay between men and women. April 4th 2018 was the deadline forthe first wave of this annual exercise. The results aren’tpretty.

英国是欧洲薪酬性别差异最大的国家之一。男性每赚1英镑，女性只能赚其80%，这15年间，差异有轻微缩小。2015年，当时英国首相卡梅伦誓言要终结该性别“丑闻”，推出一相关政策，却受到商业的抵抗。该政策要求雇员达250人以上的组织机构需公布男女雇员之间的时薪差。2018年4月4日则是此年度活动首次的截止日期，然而结果不尽人意。

The 10,000 employers that filed results revealed an average median pay gap of 12%. The Economist Group, ourparent company, reported a gap of 29.5%, more than double the average for themedia industry*. Some, including Ryanair and Jefferies investment bank,admitted that they paid women less than half what they paid men. Firms alsopublished the share of men and women in each income quartile,with most proving top-heavy with men (see chart).

所记录的1万名雇员的结果显示，平均薪酬差异中位值为12%。经济学人集团，我们的母公司所汇报的差异高达29.5%，为媒体行业平均值的2倍。而另一些企业，如瑞安航空（Ryanair）和杰夫里斯投资银行（Jefferiesinvestment bank）均承认支付给女性的薪资比男性的要少一半以上。企业们也公布各收入中下层男女比例，佐证了男女间差异之巨大（详见图）。

The data do not adjust for employees’ different roles, so chiefexecutives are compared directly with secretaries. Mean gaps can beskewed by a few high-earners, as shown by the fact that nine of the tenorganisations with the greatest differences between their median and meanpay-gaps are football clubs.

该数据并未就不同职业岗位雇员进行调整，因此董事长与秘书的薪资间会有一个直接对比。平均值差距或被少数高收入人群平衡，但事实证明，90%薪酬中位数与平均数有较大差异的组织机构皆为足球俱乐部。

All this leaves plenty of room for spin, misinterpretation andcounterproductive responses. Two narratives have emerged. The first is that thegaps prove how sexist and discriminatory the workplace still is. The second isthat they are adequately explained by men’s greater share of senior jobs, andhave nothing to do with discrimination. Neither is quite right.

这使得留下许多杜撰、曲解、产生反效果回应的空间。对此出现两大分歧：一方面，上述差异证明目前的工作环境依旧是男性至上且存在歧视；另一方面则表示，上述差异通过展示男性在高级职位的占比得到充分解释，且与歧视无关。两者都并非完全正确。

Equalpay, unequal work

相同的酬劳，不一样的工作量

One misperception is that a gender pay gap reveals paydiscrimination. It doesn’t. Pay discrimination refers to people who do the samejob, or jobs of similar value, being paid differently. It has been illegal inBritain since 1975 and underpins several big complaints, such as an ongoing£4bn ($5.6bn) claim against Tesco byfemale shop staff claiming that they should have been paid the same as mainlymale warehouse workers (Tesco denies wrongdoing).

有一个误区在于人们认为薪资上的性别差异在于薪酬支付上的歧视。其实并不然。薪酬支付上的歧视是指做相同工作或价值相近的工作，却得到不一样的薪酬。该做法于1975年起被视为违法行为，且有好些重大投诉作为其理论基础。好比女性店员与特易购（Tesco）之间的40亿英镑（56亿美元）的索偿纠纷，店员们诉求道她们应该获得与仓库员工大致一样的薪酬（特易购否认该不当）。

The new reporting exercise is not about such discrimination.Airlines have reported some of the widest pay gaps, yet are unlikely to haveunequal pay, because collective bargaining tends to determine salaries in theindustry. Of easyJet’s pilots, 94% are men (average salary: £92,400)whereas 69% of cabin crew are women (earning an average of £24,800). Theairline industry does not have a pay-discrimination problem so much as arecruitment problem.

新的报告行动并非关于该些歧视。航空公司报告了一些较为巨大的薪酬差异，由于劳资双方就工资问题的谈判决定行业薪酬，因此并不未指出存在薪酬不公平现象。以易捷航空公司（easyJet）为例，该公司94%飞行员为男性，平均薪资92400欧元，而69%空乘人员为女性，平均薪资24800欧元。航空行业在薪酬歧视或招聘上，并没有出现任何问题。

Other industries fail to promoteenough women—and Britain is not alone in that. McKinsey, aconsultancy, found that, whereas half of graduate entrants in American lawfirms were women, only one in five equity partners was. Such “leakingpipelines”, where the share of women drops at every level ofpromotion, are also clear in financial services, which has the second-widestpay gap of any industry in Britain. A study by SKEMABusiness School found that, although women made up 52% of banking employeesglobally, only 38% of middle managers and 16% of executive committee memberswere women.

然而其他行业却没有足够的女性高级职员，且并非只有英国面临该问题。麦肯锡（McKinsey）咨询公司发现，即便美国有一半进入法律公司的毕业生为女性，但却只有1/5女性成为企业合伙人。还有一些“重灾区”，如金融服务行业，不同岗位层次的女性晋升比例低，且为全英各行业中薪酬差异第二大的行业。  欧洲知识经济与管理学院（SKEMA）发现，尽管全球52%银行职员为女性，却仅有38%中层管理者及16%董事会成员为女性。                                                                                                          

The pay-reporting exercise comes withlimited enforcement. Some firms large enough to report have not done so, andseveral published what looked like implausible pay gaps (a cluster around 0%suggests that some are fibbing or failing to understand the exercise).

薪酬汇报运动有其执行限制。一些企业足够大型，并未按照要求进行汇报；一些则公布不合情理的薪酬差异（约为0%的数据暗示着有人在撒谎或是未理解此项运动）。

But others have accompanied their data with explanations andplans to fix things. RBS, a bank, vowed to achieve genderbalance across all ranks by 2030. The Telegraph newspaper promised to close its 23.4%gap by 2025. Because this will be a yearly exercise, many firms’ priority willbe to ensure the figures for 2019 show improvement.

不过也有一些其他公司在提出数据同时也给出自身的解释和解决方案。苏格兰皇家银行（RBS）誓言于2030年达成平衡各项目性别差异的目标。《邮电报》（Telegraph）也承诺会于2050年前将差异缩小至23.4%。由于该项运动为年度运动，许多企业优先考虑确保2019年的数据并有所可见改善。

They should beware quick fixes. Companies could outsource low-paidadministrative work, which would improve their figures overnight. They couldalso stop hiring junior women, who exacerbate gaps in the short term. Voluntarypay-cuts by the best-paid men—as taken recently by some BBC stars—may be goodPR, but they can create backlashes, as in Iceland a few years ago when somemen’s salaries were cut after equal-pay claims by women.

然而企业须谨防过急的修缮。企业可能会将廉价行政管理工作外包，这样就能高枕无忧。企业也可能会停止雇用会在短期内把差距拉大的资历较浅的女性。最近一些BBC明星成员——高收入男性的自愿减薪可能会是个很好的宣传，但这也可能会出现过激反应，冰岛也曾于几年前当女性提出薪酬公平后削减某些男性薪资的行动。

Many of the more sensible solutions take time and start withdiagnosing what lies behind the numbers. “I’m concerned that this British reportingis ostensibly focused on pay, but in reality it’sjust about representation,” says Brian Levine ofMercer, a consultancy. “What companies really need to find out is whether theyare hiring equitably, paying equitably and are offering equitable opportunitiesto advance.”

许多更为明智的解决方法在判断数字背后的根本原因后逐步开展。美世咨询（Mercer）的Brian Levine认为，英国该份报告只是从表面上聚焦于薪酬问题，但现实中所要关注的是男女代表数的问题。同时他还表示，企业真正需要明白自身是否在雇佣、薪酬、和晋升机会上都保证了男女间的公平。

Men’s and women’s salaries start diverging from the childbearingyears. This “motherhood penalty” is often followed by the “good-daughterpenalty”, when elderly parents require care and daughters prove moreconscientious than sons. The median pay gap is only 2% among full-time workersin their 30s, yet jumps to 14% in their 40s and 16% in their 50s, according tothe Office for National Statistics.

男性与女性的薪资差异在分娩期开始扩大分散。而这个“母性惩罚”通常伴随“好女儿惩罚”而至。“好女儿惩罚”则是当父母年龄逐渐增大，需要照料时，女儿通常会比儿子付出更多。根据国家统计局数据可知，在30岁左右时，全职人员的薪酬中位数差异仅为2%，到了40岁左右却一下子扩大至14%，50岁时则达到16%。

Tempting as it may be to blame women’slack of progression on their wombs, this is only part of theexplanation. The other is structural discrimination. One in nine new mothers isdismissed, made redundant or treated so poorly that she leaves, according to Britain’sequality watchdog. Subtler biases favour men in hiring, performancereviews, pay and promotions. A study in 2016 by Warwick University found that,among workers who asked for pay rises, men were 25% more likely than women toget the nod.

人们可能想将此归咎于女性子宫缺乏连续性，但这只是其中一种解释。另一方面则是结构歧视。根据英国平等监察机构（Britain’sequality watchdog）数据得知，1/9准妈妈被辞退，或以人员过剩为由，降低其待遇迫使其离职。这些微妙的偏见在雇佣、表现评价、薪酬和晋升方面更使其偏爱男性。华威大学（WarwickUniversity）2016年一份研究中发现，要求提升薪酬的员工当中，男性成功的几率要比女性高出25%。

Unlike Britain, many European countriestackling pay gaps have focused on discrimination between people with similarjobs, rather than gaps across whole companies. Nevertheless, Britain’s blunterexercise is having an impact. The data have got board members, shareholders,customers and employees talking about pay. Now that the numbers are out,executives are keen to “win”, says one consultant. IrisBohnet, an economist at Harvard University, has noted a similar effectcaused by awarding hygiene ratings to restaurants and putting energy-efficiencylabels on white goods.

与英国不同，许多欧洲国家已经把目光转向同职上的歧视，而并非整个企业的收入差距，并着手解决薪酬差异。尽管如此，英国这项“直接粗暴”的活动也有其影响。公布的数据使得许多企业董事会成员、股东、客户以及雇员都开始谈论薪酬的问题。一位顾问称，现在所有数据都已经公之于众，而主管们都渴望“赢得胜利”。哈佛大学经济学家Iris Bohnet注意到，这和给餐馆颁发卫生评价、给家用电器贴上能耗标签影响相似。

If women’s positions do improve, it willbe hard to say whether it was caused by mandatory reporting or broader winds ofchange. In America, where President Donald Trump has rejected a similar policy,companies nevertheless increasingly publish data on pay equality, often underpressure from shareholders. In Britain several accounting and law firmsdisclosed partners’ salaries, though they were excluded from mandatoryreporting.

若女性地位的确得到改善，这很难说是强制性报告或是因改编的风潮使其得到落实。在美国，即便特朗普总统反对了一项相似的政策，但企业仍在股东的压力之下，不断公布其关于薪酬公平性的数据。在英国，一些会计或律师公司也公开其合伙人的薪酬，尽管这些都被排除在强制性汇报以外的数据。

And within companies the case fordiversity is increasingly made not in terms of PR but profit, as evidencelinking diversity to performance mounts. McKinsey found that companies inthe bottom quartile for gender and ethnic diversity in leadershipwere 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability.

在企业中，分歧案例不断增长并非因为宣传而是由于利润在驱使，同时也因为，将分歧与表现联系在一起的证据也在不断攀升。麦肯锡咨询公司发现，，在管理层的性别、人种分歧上占29%的下游企业，不太可能达成高于平均数的盈利。

Even if every company becamescrupulously fair, the pay gap would endure as long as more women than menworked part-time and in industries that pay poorly. This prompts a questionthat is often overlooked: what size should the gap be? Theresa May this weeksaid she wanted her government to end the “burning injustice” of the gender paygap. The injustice to aim at is not the lack of equality in outcomes, butrather in opportunities.

尽管各个企业在公平性上变得小心翼翼，若更多的女性依旧比同行业兼职男性获得更少报酬，薪酬差异则会依旧持续。这便提示了一个我们平常所忽视的问题：差异应该要保持怎样的差异才算合理？英国首相特蕾莎梅本周称她要求政府终结薪酬上的性别差异，结束这个“迫切需要解决的不公平”。而这个不平等目标并非在于调整产出不公平性，而是平衡男女间机遇问题。