Equal Pay: 3 Things Execs Don’t Get
Jennifer Openshaw
CEO, Girls With Impact, the #1 online business education for the next generation | "One of the most outspoken proponents for empowering women" - CBS | PBS Show host | Keynote Speaker | Seen on Oprah, GMA, CNBC
Today is the 20th Equal Pay Day, the day each year when women’s earnings catch up with men's earnings from the previous calendar year.
Have you encountered those moments when you felt you weren’t paid the same for the same work? I recall the friend I grew up with -- now a top exec at one of the three largest media companies -- who fought for her own equal pay after learning of a new hire who was earning more with the same experience and education.
It's not just one's base salary that matters, but bonuses and commissions, too. Together, they can make all the difference in whether someone gets that next key opportunity — the new job, the promotion, the recognition – whether that someone is a man or a woman. A $10,000 bonus difference each year, over 10 years, can lead to an additional gap of $125,000 or more (thanks to compounding of those earnings).
The problems can happen in any industry, but the tech industry is worthy of some attention.
The Wall Street Journal found that the firm with the best record of employing women in tech jobs was eBay. How good was it? Just 24 percent of the jobs were held by women. The number happened to match the U.S. Commerce Department estimate of the percentage of all STEM jobs in the nation that were held by women… in 2009, six years earlier.
Why has women’s advancement in the tech sector been such a crawl? A common explanation is the male-dominated culture of the industry, where men account for a lopsided number of engineers. Engineers are the ones who get promoted to leading management positions, perpetuating the male culture and its biases.
Reformers say that one solution for drawing more women into tech is better compensation. Last year the cloud-based software firm Salesforce reportedly spent $3 million to accommodate adjustments to women employees’ salaries.
But the focus on pay as a remedy to gender unbalance can overlook deeper problems of management structure and attitudes, in tech and beyond. As top managers ponder better—and long-overdue—compensation strategies, there are three issues we all should keep in mind:
1. Practices matter. A recent global survey by Mercer on women in the workplace, When Women Thrive, found an uncomfortable distinction drawn by employees at information and tech companies. Although more than half—56 percent—agreed their organizations believe there is a clear business case for improving gender diversity, only 36 percent said that their employers had remediation programs in place to address pay equity risks. The best mission statements in the world won’t change a thing without practical efforts spelled out in writing; the absence of real programs only engenders cynicism that permeates down all levels of the company.
Some of the most forward-thinking companies are bringing a gender lens to areas like compensation across the board – from base to bonus to commissions. Without that, women can be held back from opportunities to move up.
2. It’s about more than pay. It’s not enough to draw women into the tech sector with competitive salaries; the tech industry needs to develop the talent it already has. This isn’t happening; at least half of the women are leaving the sector at the height of their careers, more than double the rate of men.
Managers at all levels need to think creatively about meeting the work/life needs of their employees, including maternity leave. Although women are actually promoted at a higher rate from senior managers into executives, it’s at the professional levels where we see the real roadblock: women, hired and promoted at lower rates, make up only one-third of professionals in the tech industry. While many organizations are putting programs into place focusing on the top, the real need is to nurture and develop all career levels, starting at the bottom.
It is of critical importance to engage women—and their male and female managers. Merely having programs available, while supervisors remain disengaged, is no longer enough.
3. Women are strategically crucial. Some may ask, What difference does it make whether women or men write the code, as long as the code gets written? Why does equal pay matter? Indeed, 25 percent of info/tech employees told Mercer they felt there was no clear business case to be made for improving gender diversity. The view is unfortunate, but also very shortsighted.
The tech industry will have about 4 million vacancies this year. Some segments of the market will have to scramble to fill their openings; just 40,000 young people will graduate with bachelor’s degrees in computer science, for example. With only 18 percent of computer science majors female, there is tremendous room for improvement here. Do the math.
The tech industry, of course, isn’t alone as it comes to terms with these issues. Across all business sectors, companies are struggling to improve inclusion, and women are struggling to take the place they deserve. In North America women hold 39 percent of professional and more senior roles, a number that Mercer estimates will increase by just a single percentage point by 2025.
Equal pay is just one starting point for what is shaping up to be a long road ahead for full gender equality in the workplace.
For insights on pay equity and gender diversity in the workplace, follow our #WhenWomenThrive research: whenwomenthrive.net, @WhenWomenThrive, or join our LinkedIn group.
concepteur électronique chez BRP , véhicules électriques
8 年I have often seen women get promoted over men or getting a bigger salary because of their gender. I have often seen bosses be much more enjoyable with women than with men. I have often seen incapable women getting a job over very capable male peers because of a "positive discrimination program" that was in place. It's funny how all those activists and collumnists never mention that. They would much rather make it look like we are still in the 1920s with men thinking of them as baby machines. Much easier to make a point right? What i have not often seen is women studying engineering, or theoretical physics, or working to become an electrician, a mechanic...etc. Maybe some of you women activists may want to take a break from blaming men for everything and maybe, just maybe, you could look at how WOMEN look at WOMEN ? I can tell you that if there were more women in engineering here in canada, then there would be more female engineers. No need for "positive discrimination" that promotes unfair advantages based on irrelevant characteristics. I can guarantee you that they would be well treated and respected everywhere i have worked. It's irrelevant to talk about "gender gaps" in the industry when there is a woman-made, voluntary "gender gap" at the education level. When we see "gender-parity" in the number of graduates, then it'll be relevant, if we find that it is still present. What i mean is maybe it's time to stop writing a million collumns about women missing from the tech industry (and the evil,lazy,entitled,incapable men that keeps them out) and time to actually do the work to become a woman in the tech industry?
Marteking chez entreprise singer
8 年his is every good the post of Jennifer opens haw
Technical Consultant
8 年"The tech industry will have about 4 million vacancies this year" There are already too many computer programmers. The good ones are busy dealing with the mess made by too many bad programmers.
PA to Primary School Principals at Pinehurst School
8 年I am definitely all for equal opportunity and pay, however if only 19% of IT graduates are women, it indicates that many women may not want to be in the IT industry. The university degree is a choice that they have made to go down that career path. Perhaps if they wanted more women in the industry, they should advertise courses in more women-dominant publications etc. and challenge the notion that it is a man's job (like being a builder or a plumber is a man's trade).