New findings show some firms have yet to conduct pay equity remediation
Pay transparency action is becoming more widespread in organisations, but a new report has pointed out that employers have yet to fix the pay gaps that this move could expose.
Findings from Aon's 2026 Pay Transparency Pulse Survey revealed organisations are making progress on pay transparency, including 11% that reported it is already fully implemented and embedded in their workplace.
The majority of employers (82%) said a pay transparency programme is in progress, including 13% of firms in initial positioning and 18% in "largely complete" implementation stages.
A quarter of firms said foundational work is already in progress, while 26% said a holistic pay transparency programme is underway.
The findings come amid regulations surrounding pay transparency globally. In Europe, where the European Union recently introduced a Pay Transparency Directive, 21% of firms there reported that they are actively implementing changes.
Challenges to pay transparency
Despite the growing momentum of pay transparency, the report warned that employers may not be fully ready for full disclosure.
The report showed that only five per cent of firms have largely completed pay equity remediation, while 32% have not yet conducted a remediation analysis.
Even among firms that said their pay transparency programme is fully embedded, 21% have not conducted pay equity remediation.
Manager readiness to explain pay decisions is also a major capability gap for 43% of employers, despite the majority of employers (87%) saying they are very and moderately confident in their ability to defend their pay decisions.
Meanwhile, other unresolved capability gaps to pay transparency include:
- Job architecture or role clarity (13%)
- Cross-country governance and coordination (12%)
- Data quality or reporting capability (11%)
- Pay structures or range design (9%)
- Legal or privacy governance (7%)
- Employee communications (5%)
"Testing capability means more than having a policy in place," Aon said. "It means verifying the pay data holds up, that managers can explain the outcome, and that the response meets local disclosure requirements."
