Live from Workplace Horizons 2025: How Is Fair Pay Faring? New Best Practices for Ever-Evolving Pay Equity + Pay Transparency Issues

Transcript

INTRO

You're listening to a special edition of We get work®, recorded live from Workplace Horizons 2025 in New York City, Jackson Lewis' annual Labor and Employment Law Conference. Over 500 representatives from 260 companies gathered together to share valuable insights and best practices on workplace law issues impacting their business today. Here's your personal invitation to get the insights from the conference delivered directly to you. We'll see you in 2026.

CONTENT

Alitia Faccone
Senior Director, Business Development

Good afternoon, and welcome to Live from Workplace Horizons 2025 and our special We get work® podcast series. In the room with me this afternoon, I am pleased to welcome Stacey Bastone, principal in the Long Island office of Jackson Lewis, Joy Chin, also in the Long Island office and Laura Mitchell, a principal from our Denver office. 

The first question I'm going to ask you is an easy one. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your practice and what you're helping employers with in 2025, which I know can be a loaded question. Laura?

Laura Mitchell
Principal, Denver

It is a loaded question. These days, I am helping employers navigate the new DEI landscape, unwinding federal contractor obligations, conducting pay equity analyses and complying with pay transparency laws.

Joy Chin
Principal, Long Island

I am actually helping clients with the same things as Laura. It's been quite a busy time. Employers are struggling to figure out how to work in this new atmosphere.

Stacey Bastone

Principal, Long Island 

I'll echo that. I do a lot of the same as my distinguished colleagues right here. One of the biggest things that we've had to learn to adapt to is just how quickly things are changing. One of the primary things that we're spending a lot of our time doing is keeping track of everything, digesting it and then getting that information out to our clients.

Faccone

Your presentation today was about fair pay, and the title was, ‘How is Fair Pay Fairing?’ So, I will ask you that question. Joy, can you tell us a little bit about what you spoke about in your presentation today?

Chin

We spoke about pay equity as it stands today, because it's been about 16 years since pay equity was thrust into the spotlight under the Obama administration. We've seen it take a lot of twists and turns, as Stacey has said. We talked about how employers should be looking at pay equity now under the current administration and how they can and should be complying with the pay transparency laws that were intended to advance equal pay.

Faccone

Laura, what issues really resonated with our audience members and that you want to share with our audience of podcast listeners, because there are federal laws and there are state laws. I know that employers have a lot of challenges when it comes to pay.

Mitchell 

Really, the discussion that we had today differed from years past, where we're talking about what the laws were and the nuances of them. We focused this year on a discussion of the practical implications. How should you be conducting pay equity analyses? What should you be thinking about? What are the nuances of compliance with the expansive pay transparency laws? Those discussions, practical questions and the guidance around how they can navigate all of those little pieces.

Faccone 

We've been talking an awful lot about how things have changed, not only in the last year, but in the last several months. Laura just started to talk about that. How different were the attendees' concerns between last year in 2024 and this year when you spoke to them this afternoon in 2025?

Bastone 

Our clients are really sophisticated, and they understand the need to evolve with the laws and the changes that we're seeing in this landscape right now. Last year, there was more of a focus on the basics, for instance, as pay transparency laws were newer. This year, the focus is, well, we're a couple of years into it, what does the enforcement look like? Of course, in light of this landscape, the focus is on DEI. Where does pay equity fall into that? Do they need to change things that they were doing? Do they need to think about things a little bit differently and how to move forward from here? It was actually a really interesting discussion.

Faccone 

Given all that, Laura, what can you tell people? What are some of the key takeaways you shared today that our listeners to this podcast episode are really going to want to know?

Mitchell 

One of the things that we've been talking about, and this really translates to a lot of the topics of today, is your risk tolerance as an organization. Where are you willing to accept some risk, and where are you not? That will really govern how you adapt and how you prepare for compliance in all of these different spaces.

Faccone 

Joy, we talked an awful lot with other thought leaders about how important it is to be proactive and sometimes be patient. Would you agree with that in terms of pay equity?

Chin

I agree with that, I do not think employers should be rushing to make any decisions. Everything should be strategic and deliberate. I absolutely agree with that.

Faccone 

Stacey, how are Joy, Laura, your colleagues and you at Jackson Lewis really helping employers untangle what's happening now and, quite frankly, making them feel more comfortable with what they're facing?

Bastone

Look, we don't always have the answers because there isn't always a yes or no, or a black and white answer, especially right now. However, what we're really good at is digesting what's out there and helping them understand on a practical level what the risks are, what the benefits are and really talking them through from a practical perspective the different options for moving forward and helping them really achieve their individual goals. Every client is different. They have different goals, responsibilities and risk tolerances. What we do best is help them identify the right path forward for them.

Faccone 

Laura, I'm going to turn to you. What else can we do?

Mitchell 

Jackson Lewis is doing a great job of just monitoring all of these developments in the pay equity and pay transparency space. Each area of law has new developments every week, sometimes every day. We are really working hard to ensure that our clients don't have to track everything across the country and that we can do it for them. Then, provide a really synthesized and easy document or information for them to take back to their teams and implement. We do the work to gather the information, and then they can use it.

Faccone 

Collaboration and partnership. It's what we do best. Stacey, Joy and Laura, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon to share your insights and enjoy the rest of the conference.

OUTRO

Thank you for joining us on We get work®. Please tune into our next program where we will continue to tell you not only what’s legal, but what is effective. We get work® is available to stream and subscribe to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. For more information on today’s topic, our presenters and other Jackson Lewis resources, visit jacksonlewis.com.