Comp and Coffee

Everyone agrees that pay matters. What they do not agree on is what it means. HR talks about fairness and equity.Finance talks about cost and ROI.Legal talks about compliance and defensibility.Leaders talk about performance and business outcomes. These perspectives are all correct, yet they often co...

Another conversation about pay transparency? We know what you are thinking, haven’t we already covered this? But the truth is, 2025 changed everything. From a wave of new state laws in the U.S. to Canada and the EU rewriting the playbook, pay transparency has moved from policy talk to daily reality....

At HR Tech 2025, AI stole the spotlight, but not everyone was convinced. Amid the hype and bold claims, HR and compensation professionals were asking tougher questions: What’s actually working? What’s just marketing? And how can AI really make their jobs easier? In this episode of Comp and Coffee, h...

In a year of tight budgets and increasing expectations of pay transparency, pay conversations are more critical than ever. Skipping, delaying, or diluting these conversations can erode trust and leave employees disengaged. In this episode of Comp and Coffee, host Ruth Thomas is joined by Payscale le...

Pay transparency laws are forcing the conversation—but alignment is what makes it stick. When it comes to pay transparency, HR, Legal, and leadership often speak in different “dialects.” HR frames it around equity and structure, Legal around compliance and risk, and leadership around outcomes and co...

Salary budgets are tightening — but strategy doesn’t have to. Payscale’s 10th Annual Salary Budget Survey reveals that planned pay increases for 2026 are dipping slightly from 2025, with economic uncertainty replacing competition for talent as the top driver of budget changes. But even in a cooling ...

Fair pay means nothing if no one believes it. That’s the wake-up call from Payscale’s latest Fair Pay Impact Report. Despite rising wages, transparency laws, and improved market conditions, employees don’t believe they’re being paid fairly—and it’s costing businesses their best people. In this episo...

When the CFO asks why… will you panic or present your case with confidence? In this episode of Comp and Coffee, we go behind the scenes with Lexi Clarke and Philip Watson to uncover how HR and Finance can stop speaking past each other—and start building stronger pay strategies together. Whether you'...

Compensation isn’t just an HR function—it’s a core business strategy. In this episode of Comp and Coffee, we look into the pay crystal ball with Rebecca Toman of Pearl Meyer, Ruth Thomas, Chief Compensation Strategist at Payscale, and Sara Hillenmeyer, Payscale’s Director of Data Science. Together, ...

What happens when your pay strategy sparks more questions than confidence—and your best people start walking? In this episode, we bring in the experts to tackle the hard truths behind tough pay conversations and how to rebuild trust before it’s too late. Episode resources: https://www.payscale.com/f...