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07/16/2010

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WorldatWork has a certification course that specifically covers the statistical analysis between male and female pay distributions -- Quantitative Methods (T3) at http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adim/seminars/html/seminars-t3.jsp.

Stephanie,

Nice post!

Doesn't the idea of doing a proactive analyses present a management conundrum?

On the one hand, if your pay design team and management is sensitive to diversity issues, they should have no problem with doing a proactive analysis, right?

But on the other hand, if the same team does a proactive analysis, doesn't that analysis then become discoverable, and subjects the employer to legal vulnerabilities that they wouldn't have had to face other-wise?

Thoughts?

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the comment. In response to your question, I don't think proactive analyses present a conundrum if they're done under the auspices of legal counsel. I advise my clients that their legal department - and ideally outside counsel - should be involved from the very beginning. I also advise that even though in-house personnel (e.g., pay design team) *may* be capable of doing the analyses, they should not do them for the very reason you mention in your question.

If the analyses are done by outside experts at the request of legal counsel, the results of those analyses are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Please keep in mind that I'm not an attorney, and can't give you a legal opinion on privilege, but it's been my experience that the analyses I've performed as an outside expert have been, in every project on which I've worked, protected from discoverability by the attorney-client privilege.

Privilege issues can get pretty complicated pretty quickly, particularly if internal personnel are involved. I discussed this issue with Paul Secunda of the Marquette University Law School a couple of weeks ago in my podcast (I can provide the details if you're interested in listening to the podcast).

One final thing to consider - if your in-house team performs this analysis, and you end up in litigation, you will likely have to defend the results of your analyses (either to a judge or a jury). An objective assessment by an outside expert will likely carry more weight than one performed by the defendant...

Analyses done on behalf of outside counsel by outside experts do not subject the employer to legal vulnerabilities they wouldn't otherwise have had to face. In fact, the opposite is true; by doing these proactive analyses, the employer can identify potential problem areas - before someone else does - and take corrective action where appropriate. This can reduce your vulnerability and go a long way in reducing your exposure to litigation.

Best answer I have ever seen to the question, Stephanie. Thank you very much!

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