Almost every organisation that runs its first serious pay analysis finds a gap it can't immediately explain. Some of it turns out to be job level, location or tenure. Some of it doesn't, and that leftover part is what regulators, employees and courts care about. Pay equity software exists to separate the two, show you which individuals sit below where they should, and tell you what fixing it would cost.
This guide compares five tools that do that work. It covers what each is built for and who it doesn't suit, then sets out a buying process and the questions to ask in demos. If you have not yet run an audit, read our pay equity audit guide first. It covers the method, and the method matters more than the software.
A note on method: we describe each vendor from its own public product and pricing pages, checked in November 2026. None of the five publishes a list price, so we say so rather than guess. We have not run hands-on trials, and nothing below is a test result.
Why pay equity has moved up the agenda
Pay equity used to be an annual spreadsheet project. Three changes have made it continuous.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive
Directive (EU) 2023/970 required member states to bring its rules into national law by 7 June 2026. Its reporting duties phase in by size. Employers with 250 or more workers report their gender pay gap every year, starting by 7 June 2027. Employers with 150 to 249 workers also report first by 7 June 2027, then every three years. Those with 100 to 149 workers start by 7 June 2031.
Two provisions matter most when you pick software:
- Joint pay assessment. Under Article 10, if reporting shows an average gap of at least 5% between women and men in any category of workers, and the employer can't justify it with objective, gender-neutral criteria or fix it within six months, the employer must carry out a joint pay assessment with workers' representatives.
- Right to information. Under Article 7, workers can ask in writing for their own pay level and the average pay of comparable workers, broken down by sex. Employers must reply within two months and must remind all workers of this right every year.
The directive also shifts the burden of proof. Under Article 18, once a worker sets out facts that suggest pay discrimination, the employer has to prove there was none. If the employer has not met its transparency duties, that burden applies more broadly. You need records of how each pay decision was made.
US and UK rules
In the US, the Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for substantially equal work, and the EEOC is clear that "job content (not job titles)" decides whether jobs are substantially equal. Title VII goes further and doesn't require the jobs to be substantially equal at all. The EEOC also states that employers may not reduce the wages of either sex to close a gap. Remediation means raising pay, and that is why the budget question matters so much.
A growing number of US states and cities also require salary ranges in job adverts. Our pay transparency laws guide tracks the current rules by jurisdiction.
In the UK, any employer with 250 or more employees on its snapshot date must publish gender pay gap figures within a year. The required calculations are the mean and median gaps for hourly pay and bonus pay, the share of men and women in each hourly pay quarter, and the share of each receiving a bonus.
The gaps are still there
The Office for National Statistics puts the UK gender pay gap for full-time employees at 6.8% in April 2026 (provisional), down from 7.2% a year earlier. Across the EU, Eurostat reports an average unadjusted gap of 11.1% in 2024. These are economy-wide, unadjusted figures, not proof of discrimination at any one employer.
Many employers say they are not ready. Mercer's global survey found that nearly 50% of employers said they were prepared for pay transparency compliance in 2025. That was up from 32% in 2024, but it still leaves about half unprepared.
What pay equity software does
The category covers four jobs, and vendors stress different ones.
Raw and adjusted gap analysis
A raw (unadjusted) gap compares average or median pay between groups with no controls. It is what UK and EU reports require, and any HR system can produce it. An adjusted gap uses multiple regression to control for legitimate pay factors such as job level, function, location, tenure and performance rating. What remains after those controls is the gap you have to explain or fix. The core of any pay equity tool is how well it builds, documents and explains that regression model.
Comparable work grouping
Regression only works if you compare people doing similar work. The EU directive uses "work of equal value", which looks at skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions, not just job titles. Good tools help you build and defend these groups.
Remediation modelling
Once you know who is underpaid, you need to know the cheapest fair way to close the statistically significant gap. Tools differ a lot here. Some just list underpaid people. Others run scenarios to find the minimum budget that removes significance, or rank adjustments by impact.
Ongoing monitoring and transparency workflows
The newer part of the category checks pay decisions as they happen, such as offers, promotions and merit increases, so you don't create new gaps between audits. EU-focused tools also handle right-to-information requests and produce the annual report.
The five tools at a glance
| Tool | Main strength | Typical buyer | Published pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syndio | Pay equity analysis plus checks on each pay decision | Mid-sized to large US and multinational employers | No, demo on request |
| beqom | Pay equity inside a full compensation suite, with EU right-to-information automation | Large enterprises, especially in Europe | No, demo on request |
| Salary.com Pay Equity | Regression and remediation budget modelling with market data | US employers already using Salary.com data | No, free trial and demo |
| Payscale | Pay equity monitoring within compensation planning | Companies buying Payscale for market pricing | No, plans on request |
| Figures | EU pay transparency and pay equity for European companies | Small and mid-sized European employers | No, based on headcount and modules |
Syndio
Syndio positions itself as pay equity and "decision intelligence" for pay. According to its homepage, it sells two connected products on one data foundation.
Pay equity features. The Essentials product covers "pay equity analysis, pay gap reporting, and transparency compliance across every jurisdiction you operate in". Syndio says EU Pay Transparency Directive readiness is built in, including continuous pay gap reporting and right-to-information responses in the EU's official languages, and that it supports pay reporting in more than 100 countries.
Decision checks. The Decisions product checks offers, promotions, merit increases and transfers against policy, equity position and market data when the decision is made. Managers get guidance with reasoning they can explain. Syndio's AI layer, Syndi, evaluates each decision and shows its reasoning. The company states that it "does not make pay decisions". A forecasting product called Predict was listed as coming soon when we checked.
Security. The site says Syndio is SOC 2 compliant and shows ISO 27001 and GDPR badges.
Pricing. Not published. A demo request is the only route on the site.
Best for: employers with enough headcount for regression to be meaningful, especially multinationals that need one approach across US, UK and EU rules, and that want to stop new gaps at the point of decision.
Not ideal for: small companies that need a one-off gender pay gap report. The homepage gives little detail on how remediation modelling works, so ask to see it with your own data.
beqom
beqom sells a compensation platform, PaySuite, and its pay equity and transparency product is one part of it.
Pay equity features. beqom says its platform "uses advanced analytics and data science to detect and address pay gaps". Its remediation feature sends personalised recommendations to HR and line managers to help close gaps within your budget.
EU directive support. This is where beqom is most specific. The product page describes automated right-to-information fulfilment under Article 7 of the directive. When an employee submits a pay request, the platform processes it, maps the correct regional data and generates a statement. beqom also sells a separate pay transparency product covering pay gap reporting, pay ranges and digital reward statements for employees.
Integrations. The page says it connects to HR and payroll systems through standard APIs and is listed on the ADP Marketplace.
Pricing. Not published. beqom offers a personalised demo.
Best for: large organisations, particularly with a big European workforce, that want pay equity, salary ranges, merit cycles and variable pay in one compensation system.
Not ideal for: a team that only wants a pay equity analysis and already runs compensation planning elsewhere. A suite purchase is a bigger project than a standalone analysis tool.
Salary.com Pay Equity
Salary.com is best known for market pay data. Its Pay Equity product is the most explicit of the five about its statistical method.
Pay equity features. The page describes multivariate regression to find which factors drive pay and flag potential issues by gender, race, age and comparable work group. It also describes automatic grouping of jobs by skills and responsibilities, and pairs internal analysis with what it calls "10+ billion external market data points".
Remediation. Salary.com describes "what-if" remediation modelling to find the minimum budget needed to remove statistical significance while keeping salary structures intact. This is the budget question most finance teams will ask first.
Monitoring and integrations. The product sends alerts when job, market or structure data goes out of date, and integrates with HR systems to flag potential disparities before offers go out. Salary.com says it connects with ADP, UKG, Dayforce, Paylocity and others. It also offers visual reports and total rewards statements for managers to explain pay.
Pricing. Not published. Salary.com offers a free trial and a demo, and the page refers to plans without listing their costs.
Best for: US employers that want regression and remediation budgeting tied to market data, particularly if they already benchmark with Salary.com.
Not ideal for: organisations whose main pressure is EU directive reporting. The page we checked focuses on US-style analysis and doesn't describe right-to-information workflows. It also doesn't mention running analysis under legal privilege, so ask about that if your counsel requires it.
Payscale
Payscale sells compensation data and software, and pay equity is a feature within that rather than a separate product. Its pay equity page describes tracking pay equity trends, finding areas of risk and seeing which gaps are explained by non-pay factors.
Pay equity features. Payscale says you can check whether pay is fair across cohorts, track controlled and uncontrolled pay gaps over time, and model the pay increases needed for remediation at the employee level.
Link to compensation planning. The page says you can assess the effect of pay rises on pay equity as part of compensation planning. That helps stop a merit cycle from reopening gaps you just closed. Payscale's software overview covers the wider compensation tools this sits inside.
Pricing. Not published. The site points to a plans page and a demo.
Best for: companies that already use, or are choosing, Payscale for market pricing and compensation planning, and want pay equity monitoring in the same place.
Not ideal for: employers that need a deep, standalone statistical audit or detailed EU directive workflows. The pay equity page doesn't describe either in detail. Payscale's marketplace lists Trusaic's PayParity for advanced statistical modelling, which suggests deeper work may involve a partner.
Figures
Figures is a European compensation platform. Its homepage describes a Pay Equity module that finds company-wide and individual pay gaps and gives "tailored recommendations to explain or close them". It presents the product as preparation for the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
Plans. The pricing page lists three plans: Structure, Companion and Pay Transparency. Pay Transparency can be bought on its own or added to the other two. Figures markets it for legal reports, adjusted pay gap analysis, remediation scenarios and managing employee requests. The comparison table also lists pay equity features as an optional paid add-on under each plan, so confirm exactly what your quote includes.
Pricing. Not published as a figure. Figures says pricing depends on the number of employees and the modules you choose, and asks you to book a demo.
Best for: small and mid-sized European companies that need salary bands, EU reporting and adjusted gap analysis without buying an enterprise suite.
Not ideal for: US-only employers. The product is framed around European regulation, so check its fit for US state rules and EEO-style analysis by race and ethnicity.
How to choose
Pay equity software is a legal, finance and HR purchase at once. Work through these steps before you book demos.
- Agree who owns the analysis and whether it runs under privilege. In the US many employers run audits through counsel. Decide whether the vendor's tool will be used by your lawyers, your compensation team or both, and ask how each vendor supports that.
- Fix your job architecture first. Regression compares like with like. If job levels and families are inconsistent, the tool will report noise. Our compensation management guide covers job architecture and salary bands.
- List your reporting duties by country. UK gender pay gap, EU directive reports and right-to-information replies, and US state rules each need different outputs. Score vendors on the ones you actually have.
- Decide which pay factors are legitimate. Agree the controls, such as level, location, tenure and performance rating, with legal before you see vendor results. Factors like prior salary or a performance rating that is itself biased can hide a gap rather than explain it. Our guide to calibration meetings covers how to check ratings for bias before they feed into pay.
- Test with your own data. Ask for a proof of concept on an anonymised extract, and compare the vendor's adjusted gap with one your own analyst or adviser has calculated.
- Look at remediation, not just reporting. Ask each tool to produce a remediation plan for the same budget and compare who gets adjusted and by how much.
- Check how it fits your compensation stack. If you already run merit and bonus cycles in a compensation management platform, decide whether pay equity should live inside it or alongside it. A separate tool is fine for annual audits. Checking decisions at the point they are made needs the two systems to talk to each other.
- Price the full contract. Get licence, implementation, any consulting or legal-review fees and renewal increases in writing. None of these vendors publishes a price, so quotes are your only comparison.
Questions to ask in every demo
- Show me the regression model: which variables it uses, how you handle small groups and how you report statistical significance.
- How do you group "work of equal value" for EU reporting, and can we change the groups?
- Generate a remediation plan for a fixed budget. What logic decides who is adjusted first?
- Walk through a right-to-information request from submission to the statement the employee receives.
- Who at your company can see our employee-level data, and where is it stored?
Getting value after you buy
Software finds gaps; people close them.
- Budget for remediation separately. Mercer reports US employers plan average salary increases of 3.5% for 2027. Taking equity adjustments out of the merit pot squeezes everyone else, so ring-fence them.
- Fix the cause, not just the people. If gaps keep appearing in starting salaries, look at offer guidelines and negotiation practice. If they appear after promotions, look at how promotion increases are set.
- Explain the result to managers. Give managers the reasoning behind each adjustment and a short script.
Frequently asked questions
What is pay equity software?
It is software that analyses employee pay data to find gaps between groups, such as by gender or ethnicity, that legitimate factors like role, level and location don't explain. Most tools also model the cost of closing those gaps and produce regulatory reports.
What is the difference between a raw and an adjusted pay gap?
A raw gap compares average or median pay between groups with no controls. An adjusted gap uses regression to compare people in similar roles with similar characteristics. UK and EU reporting uses raw gaps; legal risk analysis relies on adjusted gaps.
Does the EU directive require pay equity software?
No. It requires reporting, right-to-information replies and, where an unjustified gap of 5% or more persists, a joint pay assessment. You can do this without dedicated software, but larger employers usually find spreadsheets hard to keep accurate and auditable.
Do pay equity tools publish their prices?
None of the five tools in this guide published a list price when we checked in November 2026. Figures prices by headcount and modules, Salary.com offers a free trial, and Syndio, beqom and Payscale ask you to contact sales.
How often should we run a pay equity analysis?
At least once a year, and before each merit or promotion cycle so you can fix gaps in the same budget. Tools that check offers and pay changes as they happen reduce the chance of new gaps appearing between audits.