Syndio, the world’s leading workplace equity platform, released its 2025 Workplace Equity Trends Report. Shedding a light on the most-pressing issues surrounding workplace equity and pay transparency, the fourth-annual report found most organizations are not prepared for the expanding global scope of pay and career transparency. With the approaching EU Pay Transparency Directive, nearly half (47%) of companies with major operations in Europe are concerned about the impact the directive will have on their organizations.
“The EU Pay Transparency Directive is the most significant piece of pay equity legislation anywhere in the world in the last 50 years. Based on hundreds of conversations and over a dozen roundtables with large employers across Europe, it’s clear that these leaders understand how the Directive will upend how they manage and explain pay,” said Christine Hendrickson, VP of Strategic Initiatives at Syndio. “As one leader put it: ‘we’ve moved from pay reporting being a compliance exercise to a broad Human Resources-wide strategic mandate.’ But I fear there are too many leaders, including some U.S.-based employers with a footprint in the EU, who have not yet digested what a massive change management exercise this will be.”
The report brings together new survey results, research, and insights from over 400 HR and Total Rewards leaders from around the world. As pay transparency demands continue to steadily grow, this research comes at a time when HR leaders are feeling the pressure of dealing with more complex requirements like never before.
“The landscape of pay transparency is rapidly evolving as external pressures continue to grow, and companies are feeling the heat,” said Maria Colacurcio, CEO of Syndio. “While our research shows that many organizations still have a long way to go, the good news is that wherever they’re starting from, there’s still time to act and prepare for what’s coming – don’t get left behind.”
Through the research, four key trends emerged:
- The EU Pay Transparency Directive is keeping leaders up at night
- Most organizations are not prepared for the full scope of pay and career transparency
- Companies are investing in more robust pay equity strategies to get ahead of complex transparency requirements
- Despite DEI headwinds, companies are holding steady on workplace equity – but “holding steady” doesn’t tell the whole story
Supporting key findings from the report include:
- Only one in eight (12%) of organizations say they are fully prepared for both pay and career transparency.
- A core reason companies are unprepared: Pay decisions are inconsistent.
- When making pay decisions, 24% of respondents said they regularly deviate from policies.
- Misaligned decision making and static compensation programs lead to inconsistencies in pay. On average, practitioners believe that 17% of employees would earn less and 38% would earn more if they were hired today.
- More organizations are including long-term incentives (LTI) in their pay equity analysis: 48% included LTI in their pay equity analysis; up from 39% last year.
- Despite the recent discourse challenging DEI programs, HR leaders remain steadfast in prioritizing workplace equity. Over two-thirds (67%) believe their workplace equity programs will continue to be a priority moving forward.
- 65% of organizations are analyzing performance ratings on a regular basis; up from 55% last year.
- Virtually all companies collect and analyze race and gender data. The next most collected variables are government-required characteristics such as veteran status (70%) and disability (65%), followed by nonbinary gender options (32%) and LGBTQIA+ (25%).
- The percentage of organizations sharing representation data with directors and above nearly doubled: 24% this year, up from 13% last year.
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