Pay " Not a Priority For Women"

WOW – Is that really so!!! Now sorry - but I’m not totally buying this. Let's have a look - According to a new report by the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute), job preferences are more closely linked to gender than to any other factors including education, how much you work in a week, or what previous employment experience you have.

The study, which was taken across all 28 EU countries, focused on fulltime workers only, and realised a 13% gap in between male and female employees. Naturally, there were variations in different countries, and Irelands figure sits at 18%. After diligent inspection, The researchers felt that 11.4% of this pay gap could simply not be specifically accounted for, and have pointed the finger at societal pressures and norms. One thing was sure – there are unexplained vagaries in why women are gravitating towards lower paid roles. (It’s not education, women came out tops there). So why is this happening? The research group considered that women valued factors around job security & commuting times over increased salary – whilst men had far stronger preferences than women for higher compensation & benefits along with career progression.

Perhaps womens superior education provides them with more balanced, informed long term life ambitions?!?????

Mmmmm... so should we interpret this as women being pressurised to take lesser roles by compromising within an unfair system, or that women are placing higher value on non-monetary reward? And what to do with that information……

I don't know all the answers, but this is an ongoing, complex debate which needs to also include the pressures of work demands and taxation, which are not evolving at the same rate as our modern lives and commitments are.

Both Ladies and Gentlemen – at different points in all of our lives, we can require different things from our careers. Here in RECRUITERS we believe everybody deserves a fulfilling career that complements their needs. Those needs change. Mine certainly have - and will continue to.

I read about this ESRI study in an article in The Sunday Times on Sunday 27th April Thank you Brenda Power!), and this week conducted my own little, (highly unofficial) survey . So far 6 of 8 candidates I’ve raised this question to this week have positioned;

LOCATION no1, TRUST & FLEXIBILITY no 2, SALARY, no 3.

All are senior, high performing sales professionals – only one of them a female (perhaps that says something too?)… Time for employers to capture talent and optimise their relationship with it.

Can we (men and women) reinvent our relationship with work? Employers that are responding quickly and maturely to our changing preferences and needs are already capturing the best talent.

?Flexibility – remote working – contracting – job sharing – flexi times – hot desking – project work and most of all – deeper TRUST....??? These are the current value adds in a career.