Pay is one of the most important parts of our career, and one of the least understood.
As conversations around pay transparency continue to grow across Europe, many team members are asking the same questions:
How are salaries actually decided?
What information will become more visible?
And what does “fair pay” really mean in practice?
To help unpack these questions, Leigh Lasisi-Dixon, VP of Total Rewards, Talent, and Operations at Teads, joined Voices of AdTech to share her perspective and experience.
Leigh works at the intersection of compensation and benefits, Talent Acquisition, and HR operations. Her work focuses on helping companies build structures that are competitive, scalable, and more consistent over time.
In our conversation, we explored what pay transparency actually means, how the new EU Pay Transparency Directive could impact both team members and organizations, and why transparency alone does not automatically eliminate bias from compensation decisions.
One of the biggest takeaways from the discussion was this:
Pay transparency is not simply about knowing what your peers earn. It is about creating compensation systems that are more understandable, more structured, and more accountable.
Why pay transparency creates so much anxiety
For many team members, compensation feels deeply personal and sometimes unstructured.
People often know whether they feel fairly paid, but not necessarily how pay decisions are made behind the scenes.
That uncertainty creates room for assumptions:
- Someone negotiated better
- Managers chose arbitrarily
- Titles mean the same thing everywhere
- Companies are hiding information
But compensation systems inside global companies are usually far more structured than most team members realize.
Pay ranges are typically built using external market benchmarks, role scope, geography, internal leveling frameworks, and business positioning.
The challenge is that team members rarely see that process directly.
This is part of why pay transparency conversations are becoming more urgent across Europe and beyond. Team members increasingly expect companies to explain not only what people are paid, but how those decisions are made.
What pay transparency actually is, and what it is not
One of the biggest misconceptions around pay transparency is the idea that everyone’s salary will suddenly become public.
That is not what most organizations are implementing.
Pay transparency is usually about giving more visibility into:
- Salary ranges for roles
- How levels are defined
- How compensation decisions are made
- How organizations identify and address gaps
It is less about individual salaries and more about the structure behind compensation.
This distinction matters because transparency without context can easily create confusion.
Two people with similar titles may still be paid differently because of:
- Geography
- Scope of responsibility
- Experience
- Market conditions
- Performance
- Timing of hire
Understanding the system behind compensation helps team members ask better questions and make more informed career decisions.
How compensation systems are actually built
Another important part of the conversation is understanding that compensation is rarely based on intuition alone.
Most global organizations use external compensation benchmarks and market data from providers such as Radford and Mercer to build salary ranges.
These benchmarks help companies understand:
- Market rates for similar roles
- Regional salary differences
- Industry competitiveness
- Trends across functions and seniority levels
From there, companies build compensation frameworks around:
- Job architecture
- Career levels
- Role scope
- Business priorities
- Internal consistency
This is also why the same role title can look very different across countries.
A Senior Manager role in one market may operate within a very different salary structure than the same title somewhere else because labor markets, cost structures, and talent competition differ significantly.
One of the strongest points from the episode was this:
Pay is not supposed to function as a collection of isolated decisions. It is a system.
What the EU Pay Transparency Directive changes
The EU Pay Transparency Directive is pushing organizations to become more structured and more accountable in how they communicate compensation.
The directive was adopted at EU level in 2023 and will gradually be implemented across member states in the coming years.
Its goal is to reduce persistent gender pay gaps and strengthen equal pay practices across Europe.
In practice, team members will likely start seeing:
- More salary ranges included in job postings
- Clearer information around pay progression
- Stronger reporting obligations for organizations
- More formal processes around compensation decisions
The regulation is not about creating comparison culture.
It is about reducing opacity in systems that historically allowed pay gaps and inconsistencies to remain hidden.
And importantly, much of this information already exists publicly through online platforms, salary-sharing sites, AI-powered career tools, and market databases.
The real challenge for organizations is no longer whether pay information exists.
It is whether companies can explain compensation decisions clearly and responsibly.
Transparency alone does not remove bias
One of the most important themes in the conversation was that transparency by itself does not automatically create fairness.
Systems matter more.
Bias can still enter compensation decisions through:
- Inconsistent leveling
- Subjective performance evaluations
- Hiring and Promotion decisions
- Negotiation dynamics
- Manager discretion
- Unequal access to visibility and opportunities
This is why strong job architecture is so critical.
Without clear role definitions, consistent evaluation criteria, and trained managers, transparency can actually expose inconsistencies faster than organizations are prepared to address them.
The organizations making progress in this space tend to invest in:
- Clear compensation frameworks
- Calibration processes
- Manager education
- Defined promotion criteria
- Structured performance reviews
What happens when a pay gap is identified
Another common question is what organizations actually do when compensation gaps are found.
The reality is often more operational and gradual than people expect.
When gaps are identified, organizations typically analyze:
- The size and root cause of the gap
- Whether adjustments are needed
- Budget timing
- Legal considerations
- Broader compensation cycles
Some corrections may happen immediately. Others may be addressed progressively through annual review processes and longer-term structural changes.
One important takeaway from the conversation was that identifying a gap does not mean it is ignored.
But it also does not mean every issue can be solved overnight. Transparency is not instant perfection. It is increased accountability over time.
What team members should realistically expect
One of the strongest messages from the episode was the importance of balancing transparency with realism.
Progress in compensation systems tends to happen gradually.
The signs that organizations are moving in the right direction are often things like:
- More clarity around levels and expectations
- Better manager conversations
- Clearer salary ranges
- More structured promotion processes
- Stronger communication around how decisions are made
For team members, understanding compensation systems can also become part of career growth itself.
Not only asking: “Am I paid fairly?”
But also:
- How is my role leveled?
- What drives movement within a range?
- What skills or scope increase compensation?
- How are promotion decisions made?
- What market benchmarks influence my role?
Those conversations create better visibility and better career navigation over time.
Final takeaway
Pay transparency can feel uncomfortable because compensation has historically been difficult to understand. But the broader goal is not to create comparison culture. It is to create systems that are clearer, more consistent, and more accountable.
Transparency helps. Systems drive consistency.
And if team members do not understand how compensation decisions are made, it becomes much harder to navigate growth, advocate for themselves, or build long-term trust in the process.
Listen to the full Voices of AdTech episode with Leigh Lasisi-Dixon on Spotify [Click here] to hear the full conversation on pay transparency, compensation systems, bias, and the future of fairer pay practices in global organizations.