Is my work of equal value to my colleague's? How to compare your roles

Your title is customer service representative, your colleague's is account coordinator. You answer the same customers, solve the same kind of problems and work in the same systems. She is one pay grade higher. Is that fair, or is your work actually of the same value?

That question is about to matter more than it did. The Dutch pay transparency law gives you the right to ask what colleagues doing the same work or work of equal value earn on average, broken down by gender. How that right works is explained in can you ask what your colleagues earn? The answer is about your category, though, and which colleagues are in it depends on whether your work is of equal value. This article explains how that is judged, why job titles and pay grades say little about it, and how to check it yourself for your role and a colleague's.

Same work and work of equal value

Same work is the easy case: you do the same job. Work of equal value is work that differs but weighs as much. A nurse and a technician do completely different work, and yet their jobs can demand as much knowledge, effort and responsibility. The right to equal pay covers both.

Whether work is of equal value is judged on four factors set out in the EU directive and taken over in the Dutch bill:

Skills. What you need to know and be able to do. That includes education and experience, but also social skills such as handling angry customers or difficult conversations, and technical or physical skill.

Effort. What the work asks of you, physically and mentally. Heavy lifting counts, and so do long stretches of concentration or emotionally demanding work.

Responsibility. For people, money, equipment, or the safety and wellbeing of others.

Working conditions. The environment you work in: noise, outdoor work, irregular shifts, risks.

The social and emotional side is there for a reason. Work done mostly by women, such as care and customer contact, often demands a lot on those points, and older job evaluation systems often gave that side too little weight.

Why titles and grades say little

A job title mostly signals status. "Coordinator" sounds weightier than "representative", even when the work is the same. A sound comparison therefore leaves the title out entirely and looks only at what the person does.

A pay grade tells you less than you might think. The explanatory memorandum to the Dutch bill says so directly: within one part of a pay system, "for example a pay grade", different categories of workers can exist (our translation). It gives its own example: a photojournalist and a readers' editor who are both in grade 6 and still fall into different categories. The same grade does not automatically mean the same category, and a different grade does not automatically mean the work differs.

How to compare it yourself

You need two job descriptions: yours and your colleague's. Ask HR for them, look on the intranet, or use the vacancy text for the role if there is nothing else. The more concretely the tasks are described, the better the comparison. A list of competencies such as "customer-focused" and "flexible" gives little to go on; "handles complaints up to 500 euros without consulting a manager" gives a lot.

Put the two descriptions side by side and go through the four factors. Where does one job clearly demand more than the other, and where do they coincide? The hard part is staying honest about your own role. Everyone sees the demanding sides of their own work more sharply than someone else's.

What to know about the check: you do not need an account, you can run three a day, and the texts you paste are deleted as soon as the result is in. We strip names before the text is weighed. The result stays available for seven days through your own link.

What the result does and does not mean

The check gives one of three outcomes. Equal value means your work weighs so close together on the four factors that it comes out as a candidate for the same category. A borderline case is too close to call clearly different and too far apart to call clearly equal. And sometimes the work simply differs.

None of these outcomes is a legal ruling. Which roles form a category together is decided by your employer, with the consent of the works council. What the result gives you is a question with reasons behind it. "I believe my work is of equal value to an account coordinator's, for these reasons" makes for a stronger conversation than "she earns more than I do".

And then

If your work comes out as equal value or borderline, the logical next step is to ask for the average pay of your category, with your own pay level and the criteria behind it. The free letter puts that question on paper for you. While the law is not yet in force, the letter makes it a request.

If the work clearly differs, it matters which side weighs heavier. If your colleague's role does, a pay difference may be justified, and you can still ask what your own pay is based on. If yours does and your colleague still earns as much or more, that is exactly a reason to ask what the difference rests on. To see how your pay compares with the market, try the salary check. If things get stuck, talk to your works council, your union or an employment lawyer. This article is an explanation, not legal advice.