Pay Transparency:
A Progress Checklist for Organizations

Pay Transparency Progress Checklist

Define Ownership and Governance

• Document who owns pay decisions, how they’re made, and how issues are escalated across geographies and business units.
• Clarify roles for HR, Finance, Legal, and business leaders so accountability is shared and visible.

Why it matters: Strong governance turns ad hoc fixes into predictable, defensible decisions.

Clarify Job Architecture

• Create consistent job families, levels, and criteria that apply across every market where you operate.
• Check that role descriptions are current, comparable, and linked to your evaluation framework.

Why it matters: Demonstrating equal pay for equal value depends on objective, consistent job data, not local judgment calls.

Establish Pay Rules and Structures

• Publish clear pay ranges for every grade and set transparent rules for starting pay, promotions, and variable pay.
• Review whether exceptions are documented and explainable.

Why it matters: Clear pay rules limit bias and make every decision defensible.

“Job sizing and analysis is critical. Organizations need clarity about the sizes of their jobs. That allows you to establish equal work, the foundation to calculate equal pay and understand whether you have pay gaps.”
Claire Field, Senior Client Partner, Korn Ferry

Strengthen Data and Reporting Readiness

• Centralize job and pay data in one connected system.
• Test whether you can produce consistent pay-equity reports across regions, functions, and demographic categories.

Why it matters: Regulators, employees, and boards will expect data you can stand behind—accurate, repeatable, and transparent.

Ensure Local Legal Readiness

• Map local disclosure thresholds, reporting timelines, and penalty risks for every market where you operate.
• Create a clear process for how local and global teams work together when new rules are introduced.

Why it matters: It avoids last-minute disruption, penalties, and reputational risk.

Build Manager Capability and Controls

• Assess how well your managers handle pay decisions and conversations.
• Provide training on bias, calibration, and communication and embed review checkpoints with HR.

Why it matters: Managers are the face of pay transparency. Their confidence and consistency can make or break trust.

“Managers might face challenges and require training to handle conversations around disparity. They need tools to navigate the storm.”
Mark van Zon, Associate Client Partner, Korn Ferry

Shape Communication and Employee Readiness

• Develop a clear reward narrative that explains how pay decisions are made and what fairness looks like.
• Pilot manager talking points and employee FAQs before sharing widely.

Why it matters: People trust what they understand. Communication can reinforce (or undo) confidence.

Integrate Equity Checks

• Include pay equity audits in your regular review cycle and make sure results inform DEI goals and leadership scorecards.
• Engage employee groups early to test perceptions of fairness.

Why it matters: Transparency should drive equity across all groups, not just reveal gaps.

Schedule Audits and Assurance

• Set a regular cadence for pay audits, dashboards, and action-tracking.
• Document how gaps are closed and how progress is reported to leadership.

Why it matters: Consistent monitoring protects progress and demonstrates accountability.

Embed Change across the Business

• Treat transparency as part of your ongoing HR and business transformation, not a one-time compliance project.
• Link it to job architecture, total rewards, and culture initiatives.

Why it matters: Pay transparency is an enduring capability that connects fairness with performance.

“Pay transparency reflects how an organization values its people. When employees understand how pay decisions are made, trust grows and performance follows.”
Claire Field, Korn Ferry

Turn Transparency into Strength

Every organization is on its own path toward clearer, fairer pay.

Download Korn Ferry’s 5-Stage Pay Transparency Framework to assess your organization’s pay transparency readiness. It’ll help you understand what good looks like at every stage and plan the steps to increased fairness, trust, and performance.