The new pay structure
With the ranking complete, Anna and Peter turned to grouping jobs into grades to ensure fairness and equal pay in the new salary structure.
They adopted the following logic to create the grades:
- Grade 1 – a score of 0
- Grade 2 – a score of 1-2
- Grade 3 – a score of 3
- Grade 4 – a score of 4
- Grade 5 – a score of 5–6
- Grade 6 – a score of 7
Then, they translated the job rankings into a clear pay grade structure, with the help of Tool 4 – Supporting Excel (small and medium-sized organisations). They reached the following pay grades.
| Job role | Justification | Pay grade |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical director | Strategic leadership, high-level accountability | Grade 6 |
| Doctors | Clinical decision-making, patient outcomes responsibility | Grade 5 |
| Nurses | Supervisory responsibilities, continuous patient care, high emotional effort | Grade 4 |
| Medical technicians | Sensitive topics, emotional labour, lower legal risk | Grade 4 |
| Manager (office manager / HR manager) | Organisational oversight, HR compliance, staff coordination | Grade 3 |
| Assistant nurses | Direct responsibility for patient well-being, prioritisation under pressure | Grade 3 |
| Admin and reception workers | Confidential data handling, insurance liaison, patient coordination | Grade 2 |
| Support workers | Infection control, hygiene, patient transport | Grade 1 |
From there, they establish the pay structure. They set the midpoint for grade 1 at EUR 3300 and grade 6 was capped at EUR 8000. From there, they developed the rest of the pay structure. They used the 5. Pay structure tab in the provided Excel worksheet to help them.
| Lowest salary (EUR) | 2970 |
|---|---|
| Highest salary (EUR) | 8000 |
| Number of grades | 6 |
| Progression factor | 1.15 |
| Grade | Minimum (− 10%) | Midpoint | Maximum (+ 10%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | EUR 2970 | EUR 3300 | EUR 3630 |
| Grade 2 | EUR 3416 | EUR 3795 | EUR 4175 |
| Grade 3 | EUR 3928 | EUR 4364 | EUR 4800 |
| Grade 4 | EUR 4517 | EUR 5019 | EUR 5521 |
| Grade 5 | EUR 5195 | EUR 5772 | EUR 6349 |
| Grade 6 | EUR 5974 | EUR 6638 | EUR 8000 |
Anna shared the new pay policy with all the clinic’s workers. The policy was based on monthly basic pay, and it defined the midpoint and minimum and maximum pay levels for each job category, ensuring consistency and transparency in the new pay structure.
The structure was simple, transparent and fair. Each job grade encompassed positions with comparable overall job evaluation and classification scores, considering skills, responsibility, effort and working conditions.
The midpoint in each pay range shows what someone can expect to earn once they’re fully competent in their role. The lower number is typical for people who are newer or still developing their skills, while the higher number reflects advanced experience and strong performance. This design helps employees grow their salary as they gain expertise and take on more responsibility, rather than salaries being driven mainly by outside market changes.
Anna, Peter and Katrin also reviewed all complementary and variable pay components at the clinic to verify that they were based on objective, gender-neutral criteria. They examined which job roles received allowances for weekend work, on-call duty and irregular hours, and they confirmed that these allowances were linked only to genuine working-time demands. Their analysis across job grades showed that all clinical and support roles had equal access to these benefits under the same conditions and in a gender-neutral manner, with no unexplained differences in frequency or level between women-dominated jobs and men-dominated roles of equal value.