Fair pay: how we pay the people behind the movement

The team at The Humane League UK are a dedicated group of people who care passionately about ending animal abuse. We have a long, hard road ahead, and in order to be the best we can be for the animals, we need to ensure we have the best people for the job, who are paid fairly.

We also know that pay can be a barrier for some people getting involved in this work, as well as an obstacle to true diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Women, people with disabilities, and people of colour in the UK are still paid less than their white, male counterparts.

We wanted to address our salary framework head-on to eliminate the disparities so rampant in society.

How we developed our pay structure

Working with a specialist external consultant, we started by benchmarking all salaries against the wider marketplace, finding the median salary for similar roles at similarly-sized animal protection organisations.

But, as we’ve learned, the market can be biased. We also know that some roles are very niche, with far fewer salaries to benchmark, which could skew the median. We knew we needed something else to set the value for particular roles at THL UK.

We then used our consultant’s proprietary 12-factor job evaluation model to review each role in the organisation on a range of characteristics, such as decision-making, creativity, and strategic input. This helped establish a ‘score’ for each role, with nuance for taking into account the strengths and skills required for each, even when comparing them was like comparing apples to oranges.

With these scores, we could identify bands of job roles that scored similarly. We used the benchmarked medians to inform a baseline salary for all the roles in a given band. For fairness, all the roles in a band have the same baseline salary, allowing for small margins of errors in the actual scores. We then adjusted the baseline salary for working patterns (e.g. part-time hours) and Inner London Weighting.

Rewarding loyalty and recognising growth

As a small organisation, we have the same problem as many other similarly-sized employers: how to retain valuable staff when there may not be a role to be promoted into. The job roles we have and create are driven by what’s needed to make an impact for the animals. Sometimes, that means staff can grow and develop so much in their role, that they are ready for more responsibilities and a salary commensurate with their knowledge, skills, and experience. But we can’t always give them the promotion they want or deserve as there is no organisational need for a new role or role progression.

There’s also the issue of how staff turnover impacts our ability to do the work. It can be time consuming and costly to recruit and train new staff, as well as the loss of valuable insight and knowledge when exceptional people move on.

To help address this, we’ve introduced additional pay rises for high-performing staff for whom a new role or promotion isn’t possible, after two and four years of service.

How this approach addresses DEI

I started this blog talking about how we are committed to DEI. So how does this approach make us any more diverse or equitable or inclusive?

For starters, by setting the salary for the role, rather than for the person, we’ve reduced the gaps between those who negotiate for higher salary and those who don’t (or can’t).

Privilege matters when it comes to salary negotiations. Someone who can’t afford to not get the job may be less likely to negotiate their salary at the job offer stage than someone who could take it or leave it. Someone who has been paid less than their colleagues all their working life may not be as confident asking for more as someone who is used to getting what they ask for. It isn’t just about a person’s negotiating skills. By setting the salary based on the role, we reduce that opportunity for disparities to develop.

We also wanted to be transparent about when people get pay rises, removing any potential for cronyism or favouritism once people come to work for us. The process for pay rises and promotions is clear and objective, and applies equally to everyone.

Finally, we know that paying a living wage will help us attract more diverse talent. Not everyone can afford an unpaid internship or low-paying role to get a foot in the door, which means paying too little could miss out on working with people from all sorts of backgrounds who could help us end the abuse of animals. We need to be intentional and effective with how we spend every penny and we need to pay people fairly to be inclusive of people who can’t afford to work for less than they deserve. We will continue reviewing this framework and reevaluate and re-benchmark roles every two years, to ensure our pay structure continues to be fair and inclusive.

Ultimately, it is the staff and supporters of The Humane League UK who make our vision a reality. We need the best people with a diverse range of skills, knowledge, and lived experiences. Paying people fairly and competitively is one of the best ways we can achieve this.