Episode
Paying People Right When You Don't Have a Comp Team
- Published
- May 20, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1979
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Summary
Compensation problems in small businesses don't announce themselves. They build quietly, starting with offer-time decisions that made sense at the time and were never revisited, until pay gaps have compounded long enough that someone finds out and tells everyone. This episode is for HR practitioners who need to do comp work without a dedicated team, a purpose-built tool, or a large budget. Sabrina and Marie walk through where to find reliable free market data, when it actually makes sense to pay for a comp tool, how to run a basic equity review with nothing more than a spreadsheet, and how to bring a pay gap to leadership in a way that moves them to act. One distinction that shapes everything else in this episode: there is a difference between historical inequity and current inequity, and they require different responses on different timelines. And once you have documented that a gap exists, inaction is no longer neutral. It is a decision, and a liability. A note for longtime listeners: this is Marie's second-to-last episode. After the next episode, The HR Connection will continue in a solo format with Sabrina.