Fair pay How to get a raise, close the wage gap, and build stronger businesses

Buckmaster, director of Global Compensation for Nike, examines pay equity from a distinctly corporate point of view. He refers to the "Fight for $15" minimum-wage advocacy group as a "public shaming campaign." Other recent titles published on this topic frame things differently, taking a much more sympathetic stance toward the lowest-paid workers. In this regard, Buckmaster's book offers a valuable counterpoint to books like Emily Guendelsberger's On the Clock (2019) and Celeste Monforton and Jane M. Von Bergen's On the Job (2021). Fair Pay does offer deeply informed insight into how companies set pay rates and provides thoughtful arguments for allowing companies to set pay rates according to factors that are unique to each. As Buckmaster adeptly points out, the labor market doesn't conform to the traditional economic model of supply and demand, making a corporate compensation officer's job quite challenging. However, the book at times supports this conclusion with questionable examples. It is argued that a one dollar per hour raise for every Starbucks barista would cost the company approximately $200 million; the reader is not informed that Starbucks' 2019 net income was approximately $3.6 billion. Recommended for business-school libraries as a thought-provoking counterpoint to typical fair-pay books.

Buckmaster, global compensation director at Nike, argues in his winning debut that America's pay system is deeply broken. There's no evil plan at work behind how pay is determined, Buckmaster writes, just business leaders who haven't prioritized fair pay. Buckmaster discusses the deleterious effect of a low minimum wage (workers having to choose between paying for an education or their electric bill, for example) and writes that pretending that the free market will adjust appropriately on its own is a naive pipe dream. He also explores what the future could look like: greater pay transparency could help close the wage gap, and trade-offs (flex schedules, stock awards) that are a real benefit could be offered (instead of wispy appeals to personal meaning or a sense of pride in one's work). Companies, he notes, must recognize the "outsize role they play in creating fair pay outcomes," and he helpfully includes questions leaders should ask themselves ("How do we value jobs?" and "What do we mean by equal work?"). Buckmaster packs his work with insight, and delivers his message in a charming, funny tone: pay-design teams, for instance, are "the world's least-interesting Illuminati." This layperson's guide will be a boon to anyone looking to understand the forces behind how that number got on their W-2. Agent: Laurie Abkemeier, DeFiore & Co. (June)