Building equitable compensation frameworks with Mala Nagarajan

Mission: Impact

In episode 85 of Mission: Impact, Carol Hamilton and Mala Nagarajan discuss organizational development, compensation structures, and critical discussions within nonprofit organizations. They explore the limitations of market-based compensation, the concept of a thriving wage, and the importance of aligning organizational values with employee compensation. Mala emphasizes the need for transparent and comprehensive approaches to compensation, touching on various factors such as areas of responsibility, risk assessment, and the significance of understanding one's relationship with money. In addition they explore how to integrate compensating for the emotional labor required in a role. They discuss the complexities of legal considerations and highlight the need for organizations to reevaluate traditional practices to foster a more equitable and holistic work environment.

Highlights:

02:27: Creating equitable compensation models for organizations

04:50: Principles underpinning the work

08:16: The importance of interdependence

13:08- Transparency in compensation

16:21 Emotional labor and compensation

26:00 - Recognizing individual strengths and aligning them with organizational roles beyond just financial incentives

32:00 - Biases and values embedded in market-based compensation structures

37:00 - Implementing a thriving wage, distinct from a living wage

45:00 - The "conditions for readiness" necessary for successful implementation

53:00 - Assessing risk tolerance

Guest Bio: Mala Nagarajan is a senior HR consultant who works with nonprofit organizations rooted in racial and social justice values. She is driven by a vision of strong organizations working collaboratively toward a common purpose and approaches her HR work with a values-aligned, people-centered, and movement-oriented lens. Mala is a consultant with RoadMap, a national network of consultants who work with social justice organizations. She helped organize RoadMap’s HR/RJ (racial justice) working group. Mala has developed an innovative Compensation Equity Process and Calculator™ that reverse-engineers supremacy out and re-engineers equity in. It’s an evolving approach accompanied with a custom tool that organizations can use to shift from a market-based to an anti-racist compensation model that centers those living at the intersections of multiple marginalized communities.

Important Links and Resources:

Mala Nagarajan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/malanagarajan/

Vega Mala Consulting | www.vegamala.com

Marilyn Waring TED talk on what the GDP misses -- https://www.tedxchristchurch.com/marilyn-waring

Polarities: https://www.polaritypartnerships.com/

The MIT Living Wage Calculator: https://livingwage.mit.edu/

Hidden Brain episodes on budgets: https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/money-2-0-why-we-bust-our-budgets/

Learn more about Mala’s compensation work here: Fund the People: Compensation Philosophy, NPQ-Compensation Equity: A Values-Based Framework & Implementation Guide, Top Tips to Stop Widening the Wealth Gap, Why Radical Human Resources is Critical for Movement Organizations, Equitable Compensation is a Risk Worth Taking, Brave Questions: Recalculating Pay Equity, Don't Put Metal in the Microwave and other Compensation Myths, Transforming the Workplace: HR Innovations, Pay Scale Equity Process and Calculator.

HR resources: RoadMap Consulting: Human Resources and Justice: Addressing Racism and Sexism in the Workplace. Washington Nonprofits: Workers in Nonprofits. The Management Center: Making Compensation More Equitable.

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