Pay fairness – felt vs actual

On the DEI page (the same tab as DEI & engagement) there is a Pay fairness: felt vs actual map. It crosses two things Novro already holds in one anonymity-safe tenant: how fair pay actually is and how fair it feels. This is the link a pure engagement platform can’t make — it needs verified compensation data.

Actual fairness comes from the real per-department pay gap (women’s average pay as a percentage of men’s). A department counts as fair when the gap is within 5 percentage points of 100 %. A larger gap in either direction counts as unfair.

Felt fairness comes from the survey’s Pay and benefits area — e.g. “Do you consider your compensation to be reasonably proportionate to your work and responsibilities?”. The area’s 1–5 average counts as “feels fair” when it is at least 3.5.

Each department lands in one of four quadrants:

Fair & feels fair — all aligned.
Fair but feels unfair — pay is fair but people don’t feel it (a communication issue).
Feels fair but isn’t — the dangerous quadrant: the gap exists but nobody is reacting.
Unfair & feels unfair — an acknowledged problem.

Anonymity is double-gated. A department is classified only when it clears the organization’s minimum group size (a survey may set its own) on both sides: enough people with both genders independently over the threshold (otherwise the pay gap would expose a lone person’s salary) AND enough survey responses. If either side falls below the threshold the department is hidden entirely — no underlying numbers are even sent to the browser. Without a selected survey there is no felt side, and the map asks you to pick one.

The page is Admin-only and always shows only the caller’s own organization’s data. Because survey responses only carry an org node (never gender or salary band), the map can only be broken down by department.