b'CONNECTINGWhen employees know that their organization is paying them above the median pay, it will be less likely for them to leave because they arewhile Black women earned 91.5 per- salary that you can confidently offer cent compared to their male counter- to a potential job candidate without confident thatparts, telling us that there is a lesserspending more money on paying sig-they are receivingdifference in the gender pay differ- nificantly above the competitive rate. ence among the Black employeesIf the compensation philosophy of fair pay from thecompared to the White employees. your company is to lead the market, then the ideal salary you should offer organization. Locationmust be higher than the median pay. An employees Median wage can alsoWhen employees know that their differ depending on their location.organization is paying them above Some areas in a country offer higherthe median pay, it will be less likely salaries for positions because offor them to leave because they are higher demand. The cost of livingconfident that they are receiving fair in a location plays another factor inpay from the organization. This is increasing or decreasing the Medianespecially important if you want to Wage of a specific job. retain the top talents of your com-pany. Keeping them around means HIGHLIGHTING THEyou get to maintain high productivity IMPORTANCE OF MEDIANfrom your employees, and this will SALARY TO LEAD THEcontribute to the success of your MARKET business operations. In addition, An employer can lead, lag, or matchhaving data on the median pay will the market when paying their em- also help control payroll costs to keep ployees. If your company can gatheryour companys compensation level market data on the median salarysustainable.of similar jobs in a specific industry, you will be able to build a benchmark 16ILLINOIS BUSINESS LEADER'