OPEN Imperative Reaffirms Commitment to Gender Pay Equity, Announces Remarkable Membership Growth in First Year

Members such as Incorta have achieved 85% lower gender wage gaps than national average, moving up Equal Pay Day by 50 days

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One year ago on National Equal Pay Day, OPEN Imperative launched with an Equal Pay Moonshot to close the gender pay gap within member companies by 2027. Today the coalition of hundreds of employers, VCs and advocates reaffirmed its commitment to gender pay equity and celebrated progress achieved through data-driven action since its premiere.

OPEN Imperative’s first year was one of remarkable growth in membership. Now a community that is more than 370 strong, it has set a strong foundation from which to scale. Since launch, OPEN Imperative has added hundreds of new member companies, which represent approximately 500,000 employees, and gained three new advisory board members – adding to a diverse group of leaders with deep expertise in their fields. New advisory board members include:

• Antoine Andrews, Chief Diversity & Social Impact Officer at Momentive, the maker of SurveyMonkey
• Amie Patel, Partner & CEO, Elevar Equity
• Dr. Kathleen Ross, Former Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. Institute of Peace

National Equal Pay Day 2023 falls only one day earlier than the previous year, and this is a make or break moment for organizations to meet the new standard for pay transparency. OPEN Imperative and OpenComp’s State of Pay Equity 2023 report found that almost all employers say pay equity is a priority this year, but 70% say they lack sufficient data and resources to address pay equity – a 24% increase annually.

“Business leaders got a wake-up call last year – complexity is at an all-time high as dozens of cities and states roll out different pay transparency regulations that organizations must navigate flawlessly. It’s no wonder we've experienced a tremendous surge of support for OPEN Imperative,” said Emily Sweet, VP of social impact at OpenComp and executive lead of OPEN Imperative. “By providing best practice guidance, resources, and access to an engaged peer community, we’ve helped our members make measurable improvements. Our focus in the years ahead is to scale how they continue to push beyond good intentions to meaningful outcomes.”

Research presented at OPEN Summit and made publicly available today from The Josh Bersin Company found that the pay equity practice with the biggest business impact is enabling leaders to understand and communicate the importance of pay equity. Because HR and people teams have more influence in their organizations than ever before, demand for OPEN Imperative’s resources and VIP community has ballooned:

• Complimentary gender pay equity assessments to reveal current gender wage gaps.
• Pay transparency playbooks with step-by-step guidance on how to operationalize pay transparency in an organization - from creating a compensation philosophy and developing pay ranges, to tracking pay legislation and auditing pay gaps - which have thousands of downloads.
• A robust member community, with highly curated programs, including monthly Equity Matters live chats that address topics like pay transparency regulations, common pay equity roadblocks, and how to report pay data.
• A Pay Equity IQ benchmark to measure current equity practices against peers.

Early progress within the coalition is encouraging. Members who have completed pay audits have an 85% smaller pay gap than the national average, which translates to an Equal Pay Day that lands 50 days earlier. This is putting real dollars back into women’s pockets. This additional $0.13 to the $1, when invested over a 40-year career, will be worth $2.1 million, assuming an annual return of 6%.

One member, high-growth data analytics company Incorta, has leveraged OPEN Imperative’s gender pay equity reports to secure leadership buy-in for DEI initiatives and implement more processes that foster equity.

“The gender pay audit is one of the best things I’ve ever brought to our CEO,” said Sheri Kelleher, SVP of people success at Incorta. “It opened the door for executive conversations about pay equity, and lit our fire to be more deliberate in our merit and pay adjustment cycles. Armed with data, we identified specific areas for improvement and created new processes to ensure pay is tied to performance.”

“There is still much work to be done to close the gender wage gap, but our early collective progress is proof that we can really do this,” said Sweet. “Our moonshot goal is achievable, and I’ve never had more hope than I do right now.”

To learn more about the OPEN Imperative and be part of the change, sign up here.

About OPEN Imperative

The OPEN Imperative (Organizations for Pay Equity Now) is a coalition of hundreds of CEOs, investors, and business leaders. Together, we commit to ending gender pay disparity in our organizations by 2027. The OPEN Imperative was founded in 2022 by OpenComp. Join our mission at https://openimperative.org/.

About OpenComp

Employers and employees use OpenComp to get clarity at the point of every compensation decision. Together, they’re pioneering a new standard for compensation, one that’s competitive, equitable and scalable.

With OpenComp’s Compensation Intelligence Platform, business and HR leaders optimize compensation program effectiveness with benchmarking, design, and activation tools. Managers, recruiters, employees, and candidates use OpenComp to make the best compensation decisions for themselves and their teams.

Founded in 2021 by Salesforce’s founding HR team, OpenComp is backed by J.P. Morgan, TIME Ventures (the investment fund for Marc Benioff), 8VC, and more. The company was recognized as no. 8 on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2023, in the Workplace category. Get started for free at www.opencomp.com, where tiered pricing and services are also available.