The Going Rate

Paying for Specialist Skills

Organisations have often found it difficult to incorporate specialists into conventional pay structures, preferring to strike individual deals when they are hired.

Although this enables the organisation to make important pay decisions during the recruitment process - so it gets the 'right person' - such arrangements can create a complex reward system that undermines long-established internal relativities.

This paper reviews the factors influencing specialists' pay and evaluates pay determination techniques. It concludes that an analytical approach is necessary to provide both the transparency and objectivity required to defend an equal value claim, as well as provide staff with the reassurance that pay decisions are based on impartial criteria.