July 8, 2011 Why AstraZeneca Should Have Examined Its Compensation Data

Recently, the Department of Labor announced that AstraZeneca will pay $250,000 to settle allegations of gender discrimination. The dollar value of the assessment is hardly newsworthy. But the settlement decree has an interesting twist - it requires AstraZeneca to conduct a statistical analysis of base pay of sales specialists.

The required statistical analysis is the key takeaway here, and the upshot is that it's better to examine your data before problems occur, rather than after.

In this installment, we discuss the AstraZeneca settlement decree, why the company should have been examining its compensation data in the first place, and how to go about a statistical analysis of compensation. We'll also discuss five key points that can keep your proactive analyses confidential, protected, and privileged.