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Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Answers to In-Text Questions
Chapter 11: Developing a Pay Structure
Equal Pay for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team
Case discussion questions:
1. Why do you think pay fairness is important for issues like job performance and employee
retention?
While responses will vary by student, the discussion should include the ideas of equal pay for
2. If you were a leader at the U.S. Soccer Federation, how would you have responded to the
U.S. women’s team assertion that pay inequality existed?
Responses might vary and even perhaps based on gender. Many students will feel that the
3. How would you define equal work when it comes to the men’s and women’s soccer players?
Students might define equal work along a number of lines including revenue and
4. Given what is described in this case, why do you think that these pay discrepancies exist? Do
you think that they are fair or unfair? Why?
There will be strong opinions here. The women are clearly paid less per game even though
5. In your opinion, when it comes to equal pay, what is the next step for the U.S. women’s
soccer team?
The women’s soccer team needs to continue to work on the pay issue and continue to use
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Spotlight on Ethics: Pay Transparency at Google
Questions:
1. On the whole, which do you think is better for an organization and its employees: pay
transparency or pay secrecy? Give reasons and examples to support your answer.
Pay transparency policies might prevent questions of ethics for companies such as Google.
However, a transparent pay policy might also create employee dissatisfaction when employees
2. Explain how this example relates to ethics and what your own reactions to the information
contained in the case are.
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
There are many issues going on here that move beyond pay transparency. Employers have the
right to keep pay policies private. But who has the right to decide what is posted on a personal
social media site? Employers generally have strict policies here as well. These are all ethical
issues that have far reaching consequences. Do you fire Baker for a violation of Google’s social
media policy? What about all those employees who responded? Is the fact that women are paid
only 99.7% of what men are paid statistically significant? Was the data skewed because it didn’t
consider all employees?
While on the surface this seems like a great example of the importance of pay transparency, the
Mini-Case Analysis Exercise: Compensation Investigation
Outline:
1. Do you have any concerns about allowing Karyn to run the requested analyses? Why or
why not?
Student opinions will vary. There might be concern that denying Karyn the opportunity to
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
2. Is there any other person or entity you would like to involve in the decision-making
process?
There should be others involved. This is important in determining what the organization
3. What would you advise Karyn to do regarding the analyses?
I would recommend a very specific plan for analysis. Which departments, pay grades, or
jobs will be analyzed first? Why those? What are the unique competencies or skills each
HR Decision Analysis Exercise: Is Market Pricing the Way to Go?
Please provide the rationale for your answer to each of the questions below.
Is market pricing legal, ethical, and fair?
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
This practice would be legal if your competitors are not in violation of Equal Pay laws, which
you may or may not know. It is certainly ethical to consider the pay rates of your competitors in
Is it evidence based/evidence informed?
This seems to be evidence informed. The CEO is looking at pay rates of competitors and it is
Does it foster healthy employee–employer relationships?
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
This policy might not foster healthy relationships. What is the advantage to working at this
company if I can have the same pay elsewhere and experience a better work environment, or
Is it time- and cost-effective?
It might be time- and cost-effective if we can attract and retain top talent. If we experience high
Does it take a systematic stakeholder perspective?
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Not completely. Stakeholders in the community are considered, as stakeholders here would
include competitors and some of their employees who might leave to work for this company. This
Considering your analysis above, overall, do you think this would be an effective decision? Why
or why not?
This is not a decision to be made lightly and without further research. A study should be
conducted to determine what market pricing really is for this industry and geographic location.
What, if anything, do you think should be done differently or considered to help make this
decision more effective?
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
A process needs to be put in place to determine all outcomes of implementing this policy, and
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
HR Decision-Making Exercise: Conducting a Market Review
1. Using O*NET, write a three- or four-sentence job description summaries for each
benchmark job.
These will vary by student but should include the KSAs needed for each job. The
2. Using Salary.com and CareerOneStop.com as market review sources, gather pay data
for as many of the benchmark jobs as you can and enter the data into a table. Be sure
to match the job description summaries you created for Zenyah with the job
description summaries in the market review sources to ensure you are making an
appropriate comparison.
Results will vary by students. Students should consider the job description summaries
3. Imagine that the data in Salary.com and CareerOneStop.com were collected 1 month
ago and need to be aged to 8 months from now. Use an annual aging factor of +3.5%.
Pay rates will vary by student based on the information they collected but should
4. Calculate the market-based pay midpoint for each of the benchmark jobs.
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Midpoints should be calculated by averaging two pay policy rates, as outlined in the
