A pay equity audit tells you whether people doing comparable work are paid comparably, and if not, whether you can explain why. The best time to learn the answer is before you post a pay range or an employee asks what a coworker makes.
EANE’s compensation consultants run pay equity audits for New England employers, most with 25 to thousands of employees. We group your jobs by comparable work, compare pay within each group, and test every difference against the factors the law allows. You get a written report of every unexplained difference and remediation options priced at different budgets.
What a pay equity audit is
A pay equity audit answers three questions:
Which jobs are comparable?
We group positions by the content of the work, regardless of title or department.
Is pay different within those groups?
We compare what incumbents earn, including base pay and bonuses.
Is each difference explained?
Seniority, a merit system, a system that measures production, geographic location, education, training, and experience can all justify a difference.
We document the differences that hold up and flag the rest for a remediation plan.
How EANE runs your pay equity analysis
We break skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions into specific factors, such as complexity, contact with others, impact of error, and degree of autonomy, and document how each position compares. That record is what makes the study defensible later.
- Scope. We agree on which employees, locations, and pay elements are in the study, and whether it runs under your employment counsel’s direction.
- Data. You send an employee-level export. We clean it, which is often where the first surprises appear: mismatched titles, missing hire dates, people paid outside their band.
- Comparability. We group jobs using the factors above.
- Analysis. We compare pay within each group and test every difference against the legitimate factors.
- Findings and walkthrough. You get a written report, a list of unexplained differences, and remediation options modeled at different budgets. We walk your leadership team through the results and the plan.
Pay equity and pay transparency laws in New England
- Massachusetts. The Equal Pay Act gives employers a complete defense to a pay claim if they completed a good-faith, reasonable self-evaluation within the three years before the claim and made reasonable progress on the gaps it found. The law expects the evaluation to be “reasonable in detail and scope in light of the size of the employer,” which favors a right-sized study over an enterprise one. Employers with 25 or more employees must also post pay ranges.
- Rhode Island. A good-faith self-evaluation completed within two years before a claim, with unexplained gaps eliminated within 90 days, limits what an employer can owe. Employers must also give wage ranges to applicants on request and to employees at hire and on a change of position.
- Connecticut. A comparable-work standard, a salary history ban, wage range disclosure to applicants and employees, and pay ranges in job postings. Connecticut offers no self-evaluation safe harbor.
- Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Each has an equal pay law, and Maine and Vermont require pay ranges in job postings. None offers a self-evaluation defense, which makes the documentation from a study your main protection.
After the audit
Finding a gap is the start of the work. We help you budget remediation, phase increases, and update your pay structure so the same gaps don’t reopen with the next round of hires. Compensation Plan Design picks up where the audit ends, and EANE Peer gives you market benchmarks on demand. If your HR team wants to learn the method, our Equal Pay comparability analysis course teaches it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a pay equity audit, and how is it different from a market compensation study?
A pay equity audit looks inside your company: are people doing comparable work paid comparably, and can you explain the differences? A market study looks outside: how does your pay compare with other employers? Most employers need both. The audit usually comes first.
Do we need a lawyer or an HR consultant, and should the audit be privileged?
Often both, in different roles. An employment attorney can direct the study so the results are protected by privilege, and represents you if a claim is filed. Our consultants do the analysis, build the comparability groupings, and help you fix pay without breaking your salary structure. If you’re worried about what the study might find, talk to your counsel first. We can run the analysis under their direction or directly when privilege isn’t a concern. We cover the tradeoffs in Do you need a lawyer or an HR consultant for a pay equity audit in Massachusetts?
How long does a pay equity analysis take?
Most studies take four to eight weeks once we have clean payroll and job data. Data cleanup is usually the longest step, so the sooner we see your export, the sooner you have answers.
What data do we need to provide?
An employee-level export from payroll or your HR system: job title, department, hire date, pay rate, bonus or incentive pay, full- or part-time status, and work location. A spreadsheet is fine. We’ll send a template.
What happens if the audit finds gaps we can’t afford to fix right away?
Massachusetts expects reasonable progress over time, so you can phase increases. Rhode Island’s 90-day window is stricter, so Rhode Island employers should plan the remediation budget before the study starts.
How often should we repeat a pay equity analysis?
Every two years if you have Rhode Island employees, since Rhode Island’s lookback is two years. Every three years keeps a Massachusetts-only employer inside its window. Annually makes sense if you’re growing fast, posting ranges, or giving large merit increases.
How much does a pay equity audit cost?
We quote each study by headcount and the number of job groups. EANE members receive preferred pricing. A pay equity review can also be part of a broader HR compliance audit alongside I-9 and wage and hour reviews.