Select Compensable Factors

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 uses four compensable factors: skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. The choice of compensable factors depends on tradition and on strategic and practical considerations. For example, if your competitive advantage is quality, you might substitute “responsibility for quality” for working conditions, or simply add it as a fifth factor.

Similarly, using working conditions makes little practical sense for evaluating executive jobs. The employer should carefully define each factor. This is to ensure that the evaluation committee members will each apply the factors with consistency. The human resource specialist often draws up the definitions.