We believe pay is more than a number.

We’ve put in our 10,000 hours so you can be an in-house expert in three.

At PayAnalytics, we equip you with the insights you need to root out inequalities by analyzing your workforce, closing your pay and representation gaps, and keeping them closed. Our solution is built on over a decade of R&D by award-winners, engineers, and experts.

PayAnalytics is owned by beqom, a unified total compensation platform — managing compensation, employee performance, sales performance, pay equity, and recognition all in one place.

We believe pay is more than a number.

Used in
75+ countries

Company size ranging from
20 to 300.000 employees

Ensuring fair pay for
1.5 million+ people

Our Mission

We equip employers to build an equitable future.

By equipping employers with a pay equity and workforce analysis solution, we foster a world where all people have equal opportunity and access, irrespective of race, gender, ability, age, or any other characteristics.

Our Vision

We aspire to a better world.
And we’re building one.

Our Values

Open

We believe that open, honest, and compassionate communication is essential for success.

Fair

We strive to create a future that’s fair for all, and we live and breathe this value in all of our relationships.

Helpful

Our top priority is to make sure you succeed. We are here to provide support when you need it and we also celebrate your achievements with you.

Collaborative

We foster a collaborative spirit within our company and in our work with clients. We seek out fresh perspectives. When one succeeds, we all succeed.

“We are at a unique point in history when it is (finally!) no longer socially or politically acceptable to discriminate in pay based on one’s gender, skin color, sexual orientation or other demographic characteristics.”

Dr. Margrét Vilborg Bjarnadóttir
Founder & Chairman of the board
A photograph of Dr. Margrét Vilborg Bjarnadóttir. Founder of PayAnalytics.
Our story

Our story

PayAnalytics was formed, like most good things, when several elements came together at the right time, in the right place. In 2011, a COO at a financial institution noticed a pattern: Women were making less than their male colleagues by around 8%. He wanted to bring that number down to 0. 

He had the support, budget, and buy-in he needed from the board to close his adjusted pay gap. Yet after several attempts to address it, he realized that, really, nobody had a solution. Yet. He wanted answers to questions such as: Who should get a raise? How much should the raise be? How much is it going to cost?

He teamed up with Dr. Margrét V. Bjarnadóttir and Dr. David Anderson, to get to the heart of the matter. Their collaboration led to the creation of PayAnalytics, a software solution now used in over 75 countries, guaranteeing fair pay for more than 1.5 million employees, by businesses ranging from small enterprises to Fortune 100 companies.

In December 2023, PayAnalytics announced it's acquisition by beqom. beqom is a Total Compensation Management Software Solution focused on managing compensation & performance for HR & Sales.

Meet the founders

A photograph of Margrét Vilborg Bjarnadóttir

Dr. Margret Vilborg Bjarnadottir

Founder

Dr. Margret Vilborg Bjarnadottir is Associate Professor of Management Science and Statistics at Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. Margrét’s research focuses on data informed decision making, people analytics, and the pay gap in particular. In 2016, she co-founded PayAnalytics to apply data analytics to equip HR practitioners, consultancies, and analysts with quantitative decision-making tools to close all demographic pay gaps. Her work on pay equity has been covered in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, BBC, HR Magazine, and others.

Dr. David Anderson

Dr. David Anderson

Founder & Chief Science Officer

Dr. David Anderson is an Associate Professor of Analytics at the Villanova School of Business. He has worked as an analytics consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and Elder Research, for a variety of government and commercial clients. David received his Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Maryland. He has published analytics research across a range of disciplines in journals like Nature, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Organization Science. His undergraduate degree is in Applied Math from The College of William and Mary.

Management team

Sigurjon Palsson

Founder & Chief executive officer

Sigurjon Palsson was the COO of Arion Bank from 2011 to 2017. He was consequently the senior manager for HR when the bank in 2015 became the first large enterprise in Iceland to get a certification based on the Equal Pay Standard, which has now been put into law in Iceland. Sigurjon is a Civil Engineer from the University of Iceland and has two master’s degrees, one in Construction Management from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden (KTH) and one in Logistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Gudrun Thorgeirsdottir

Chief Business Development Officer

Gudrun Thorgeirsdottir was the CBDO of Skeljungur, a large oil distributer and retailer, from 2013 to 2014 and the CFO from 2014 to 2016. Gudrun has prior experience as a Chief Risk Officer, as an investment manager and is a certified securities broker. Gudrun is an experienced board member and has served on the board of directors of insurance companies, financial companies and retail and service companies. Gudrun has a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland and an MBA from HEC School of Management in France.

Gardar Hauksson

Founder & Chief technology officer

Gardar Hauksson is the CTO of PayAnalytics. He is a Software Engineer with extensive experience in development and management of software projects. He has worked on a communication platform at Google, web backend infrastructure at dohop.com, app development at Gangverk which he co-founded and on medical software at Nox Medical. Gardar holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iceland and Boston University respectively.

Vidir Ragnarsson

Head of Client Services

Vidir Ragnarsson is the Head of Client Services at PayAnalytics and serves our customers in developing their structures towards eliminating pay gaps. Vidir leads the consulting to our customers on their initiatives towards equality and equal pay. Vidir has over ten years of experience in HR from Reykjavík Energy Group. He has led the development of the equal pay system and, in his last role, directed the companies’ diversity and Inclusion initiatives. Vidir works across PayAnalytics, helping with the development of the PayAnalytics software application, marketing, and business relations.

Leopold Kristjansson

VP Engineering Digital Strategy

Leopold is a web developer with a keen focus on user interface design and digital marketing. Since 2018, he has been a key contributor to the development of PayAnalytics, both in terms of product and marketing. He holds a degree in Architecture from TU Berlin as well as having studied Computer Science at Reykjavik University. Prior to joining PayAnalytics he developed applications, digital marketing campaigns and corporate websites for clients in diverse industries, including finance, pharmaceuticals, energy, tourism, insurance, and tech. Beyond his technical prowess, he is also an adept manager with significant experience in the media and cultural sectors.

Academic collaborators

David Gaddis Ross

Academic collaborator

David Gaddis Ross is the R. Perry Frankland Professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business Administration. Before that, he was an Assistant and Associate Professor at Columbia Business School. His research examines the governance of firms, with a particular focus on gender issues in top management, and the formal foundations of strategy. He received a Ph.D. in economics from New York University’s Stern School of Business, a M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, and a B.S. in computer-science/mathematics and economics from Binghamton University. Prior to becoming an academic, David worked for over a decade on Wall Street, where he advised governments and firms on mergers & acquisitions, restructuring, privatization, and cross-border tax and accounting arbitrage. He has extensive experience applying quantitative methods to solving real business problems and explaining technical subjects to non-technical audiences.

Cristian Dezső

Academic collaborator

Cristian Dezső is an Associate Professor in the Logistics Business & Public Policy department at the University of Maryland’s R.H. Smith School of Business. His research examines the impact of top managers’ attributes, in particular gender, on firm policies, such as pay and promotions, and financial performance. In addition, his applied game theory research examines issues related to firm reputation, technology adoption, and international firm expansion. He received a Ph.D. in economics and international business from New York University’s Stern School of Business, an M.A. in economics from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a B.A. in business from the “Babes-Bolyai” University in Cluj, Romania. Prior to joining the Smith School of Business, Cristian worked in consulting, specializing in applying economic analysis to issues ranging from antitrust to complex litigation.

Want to join us?

We are always on the lookout for new team members!
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