Nearly half of US companies, 41%, are struggling to address pay equity among workers, according to Salary.com’s “Employer Pay Equity Pulse” survey. The number represents a 10% increase over the previous year.

“The practical heart of any pay equity commitment is pay transparency,” said Garry Straker, VP of compensation consulting at Salary.com. "It’s the key to managing an organization’s perception that there is equity in their pay practices.”

The report found that the top three challenges in addressing pay equity are getting leadership to support pay transparency, integrating pay philosophy into corporate culture and learning how to conduct a pay equity analysis.

However, the report noted progress on wage transparency, with 51% of businesses reporting that they disclose wage ranges in job postings, a 45% increase from the previous year. More than half of the 49% that do not currently disclose wage ranges, plan to do so within the next year.

“New pay transparency legislation in California, Washington and New York, among other areas, is creating a seismic shift in the practice of wage disclosure,” Straker said. “With many more states looking to build on what Colorado started in 2021, soon employers that do not proactively disclose wage ranges in job postings will be a small minority.”