Human Resource Management: MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
Business Report
Strategic Compensation Case Analysis
U.S. women's soccer team's wage discrimination lawsuit
Business Report for The CEO of The United States Soccer Federation
HRMT 625: MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
Review and Comment on U.S. Soccer Federation Compensation Policies
Considering the lawsuit of unequal pay filed by the USWNT against the United States Soccer Federation, the Federation needs to review its compensation strategy to fit all members, both the USWNT and U.S. Men's National Team. According to the Judge that presided over the Case, the compensation schemes, and strategies between these two soccer associations were different and not discriminatory, as suggested by USWNT (Blackmon, 2020). USWNT wanted the court to interpret the compensation structure as per their understanding and not based on material facts. The Judge also confirmed that men and women negotiated different deals amounting to differences in pay (Elsesser, 2020).
To get a better compensation strategy, United States Soccer Federation should follow the following steps. First, ask the victims, USWNT, about their preferred total compensation. Although USWNT will not determine the compensation, their input is needed as part of the review. The second step is benchmarking against other countries Soccer Federations, including Germany and the U.K. It will give the Federation a clear picture of how the other federations pay their players and whether they are complaints. Thirdly, allocate budget based on the available resources, number of games, overall contribution, and operational budgets. The Federation should look at matchday sales, sponsorship deals, and merchandise sales as part of the contribution. Besides, other aspects such as T.V. broadcasting deals, player transfers, and prize money make good sources of deciding the Federation's compensation strategy. Overall, the Federation should ensure a base pay for all players on time played, whether male or female equal. According to Long and Singh (2017), base pay refers to the pay employees get when they work, irrespective of the output and achievement. The compensation strategy will be welcome to the USWNT. The fourth step is determining pay grades for each player in the team, and this will inform the different levels of earning depending on the player roles, level, and seniority at the team. The fifth step confirms with the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA) on all requirements concerning wage, including equal pay and minimum wage.
The United States Soccer Federation's current pay policies somewhat support their strategic goals. First, the Federation looks forward to boosting the attractiveness of U.S. soccer, especially women's football that has been lagging. The Federation expects the women's football T.V. rights and broadcasting sponsorship revenue will rise to just below US$1 billion in 2021 (Lee et al., 2020). However, to achieve this, the Federation should consider better pay for women footballers.
On the other side, the current compensation policies are inclined toward male players. Why? There is no base pay for the players. Having a base pay will show equality in pay for all the players, and their outcome and achievement will determine the final pay, with base pay being part of the total pay. Improving women's football will require motivation and one of the motivating factors, according to Aamir et al. (2012).
As a result, the Federation should review some of the compensation schemes within the current payment strategy to boost motivation among female footballers to boost their participation in improving U.S. women's soccer attractiveness.
2)What compensation policies and practices— salary, incentive plans, and benefits—will help produce the employee behaviours federation needs to achieve?
To keep the talent and productivity of the team, management needs a compensation plan that would include salary, incentives, and other benefits. These will be helpful to motivate the team and will be resulted in high productivity.
Compensation Policies and practices
The management needs to use direct compensation and indirect compensation in terms of salary, incentives, and benefits.
Salary
All players are entitled to get their salary, as playing soccer is their profession. The salary of players must be fixed for the entire year, not for a game season. This will motivate them to play better.
Competitive analysis: Management can conduct an analysis report to know the wage of players of other fields while that wage could be decided by comparing to others.
Cost of living: The wage can be based on the cost of living of the area. For example, the cost of
· Living in Vancouver, British Columbia, is expensive than the cost of living in Sherbrook, Quebec.
· Labour negotiations: The management must listen to the union's decision and set wages according to collective bargaining.
· Personal qualifications: The player with high experience deserves to get paid more as compared to the player who recently joined the team. Hence, salary should be based on qualifications and experience (Santos, 2016).
As an external management consultant, we will try to negotiate compensation with the Federation and players. The primary purpose is to achieve the federation goal and to satisfy players.
Benefits
Several benefits need to be provided to the employees, which would attract them to achieve goals.
· Healthcare: Companies can present health benefits in health insurance, while in some companies, they organize various programs in the company premises to reduce the stress.
· Retirement: Retirement programs are a source that provides regular income to their employees who have left the company. Some pension plans also provide guaranteed income to their spouses. These kinds of programs are enough reasons for the employees to continue their existing jobs.
· Paid vacations: Some organizations provide paid holidays to their employees to motivate them for work. Also, employees remain loyal to their employers. It will enhance their efficiency.
· Stock & Stock options: Some companies provide their stocks as benefits to their employees if their organizations perform well in earning. As stocks are one of the valuable assets for corporations (Employee Compensation, Incentive, and Benefits Strategies, n.d.).
Incentive Plans
There are several employee incentives programs that are performed to attract the employees towards the work. While planning for these kinds of incentives, the company's management needs to follow company values and the interest of the employees at the same time.
Some incentive programs are as follows:
· Referral Programs: This is a kind of program in which existing employees refer new candidates to join the company to fit the desired role. As current employees get monetary benefit out of each referred candidate.
· Profit-sharing: Under this incentive plan, management decides to make employees contribute to the company's profits. As that will attract the employees to work harder in terms of receiving more share of profit.
· Tuition reimbursement: In today's generation, ongoing education and work are the more preferred choice of the employees. So, companies provide tuition services to their employees to continue their education and enhance their knowledge and efficiency.
· Choice of projects: Some organizations believe that providing the chance to choose the project independently would encourage them to work hard, with total efficiency, as they would select those in which they are perfect. Ultimately, the level of mistakes would fall, and correspondingly, profit level increases in the corporation.
Canada Labour Code
Canada Labour Code consists of three parts: industrial relations, occupational health and safety, and federal labour standards (Branch, 2021). Among the three, the first part that deals with labour unions and collective bargaining agreements and is important for the Case in question. US Soccer Federation has acknowledged that men and female players have been paid differently since they each had bargained for different agreements, which was the basis for dismissal of the USWNT claim for pay inequality b the Judge (Elsesser, 2020). Considering this issue occurred in Canada, the results probably would not have been different in this Case and at this level, since collective bargaining agreements are legally enforceable (unless human right legislation, which has a higher hierarchy in Canadian Law, identifies this Case as discriminatory (Dessler et al., 2019)). To avoid these confusions, it is recommended to pursue a similar compensation structure within the next schedule of collective bargaining sessions for both men and women teams.
Employment Equity Act
The principle of equal pay for equal work in Canada is incorporated in either standard employer legislation or human rights legislation within every jurisdiction in Canada. This principle specifies that male and female employees must be paid similarly for the same or "substantially similar" work (Dessler et al., 2019). This principle explicitly clarifies that the USWNT case, if it happened in Canada, could have been a violation of the law. The Federation needs to consider this principle for future compensations of men and women national soccer teams during the collective bargaining processes to ensure their compensation is not against employer standard legislation or human rights legislation.
Human Rights Act
The Human Rights Act in Canada is created to give an equal opportunity of equality to all people, and it helps in prohibiting discrimination based on gender, religion, race, ethnicity, or any other basis of discrimination. The human rights Act states the providing everyone with the same kind of goods and services to each individual. (Jackman & Porter, 2015) The Case also reflects how the women's team was unpaid and provided different training areas, medical treatment, and travel allowances. The Act states to provide the same type of employment opportunities and the same type of facilities to each person taking up the same role. There is clear discrimination based on sex in this case study; thus, the Act also provides the process needed to be followed to have a settlement for both the parties involved in the Case. (Lui, 2012)
Union Agreements
Unions are made to help the middle class and the general prosperity of the country. The unions make sure that the employees are getting fair wages and job securities to build a better future for their life. The Unions agreements can help the women's soccer team to earn what they are entitled too. The union agreements can help both in the security and the in-work experience for the employees by signing a contract, which clearly depicts the fair wages, job security, and working rights, which will also state that no one can be fired without just cause. The Union agreements can make sure with the Federation to have an equal number of rights for the women's soccer team. (David Card, 2020)
References
Aamir, A., Jehanzeb, K., Rasheed, A., & Malik, O. M. (2012). Compensation methods and employees" motivation (With reference to employees of National Commercial Bank Riyadh). International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 2(3), 221-230.
Blackmon, N. W. (2020, May 4). How U.S. soccer's legal arguments – not the 'scorched earth' ones – scored a victory over the USWNT on equal pay. FanSided. Accessed May 21, 2021, from https://fansided.com/2020/05/04/legal-analysis-uswnt-equal-pay-case-us-soccer/
Elsesser K. (2020, March 4). Judge Dismisses U.S. Women's Soccer Equal Pay Case — Here's Why. Forbes. Accessed May 21, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/05/04/judge-dismisses-us-womens-soccer-equal-pay-case---heres-why/?sh=47b20964728d
Lee, P., Wray, I., Westcott, K., & Raviprakash, S. (2020, December 7). Women's sports revenue and monetization. Deloitte Insights. Accessed May 21, 2021, from https://www2.deloitte.com/xe/en/insights/industry/technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/2021/womens-sports-revenue.html
Long, R. J., & Singh, P. (2017). Strategic compensation in Canada (6th ed.). Nelson Education
Ltd.
Employee Compensation, Incentive, and Benefits Strategies. (n.d.).
Courses.Lumenlearning.Com.https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-principlesofmanagement/chapter/employee-compensation-incentive-and-benefits-strategies/
Wong, K. (2020, October 20). 10 Employee Incentive Programs to Engage Your Team. Https://Www.Achievers.Com.https://www.achievers.com/blog/employee-incentive-programs/
Santos, M. (2016, December 16). 5 Fabulous and Inspiring Onsite Daycares. Retrieved May 25, 2021, from https://www.workingmother.com/5-fabulous-onsite-daycares
Branch, L. S. (2021, January 1). Consolidated federal laws of canada, Canada Labour Code. Laws-Lois.justice.gc.ca. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/page-40.html#h-342359
Dessler, G., Gannon, G. L., & Chhinzer, N. (2019). Management of human resources : the essentials. Pearson.
Elsesser, K. (2020). Judge Dismisses U.S. Women's Soccer Equal Pay Case — Here's Why. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/05/04/judge-dismisses-us-womens-soccer-equal-pay-case---heres-why/?sh=472668a3728d
David Card, T. L. (2020). Unions and wage inequality: The roles of gender, skill and public sector employment. Canadian Journal of Economics, 140-173.
Jackman, M., & Porter, B. (2015). Women's Substantive Equality and the Protection of Social and Economic Rights Under the Canadian Human Rights Act. Status of Women Canada, Women and the Canadian Human Rights Act: A Collection of Policy Research Reports.
Lui, A. (2012). Why Canada Cares: Human Rights and Foreign Policy in Theory and Practice. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.