Earning the Hard Way: Women in the Workplace

Paycheck to Paycheck.

Pay gaps are perhaps the most quoted metric of gender representation in the workplace— and for good reason: women almost unanimously earn on the lower end compared to their male counterparts.

While pay gaps are generally good markers for equality, they fail to address the other key figure of progress: Equity – and here's why:

One of the workplaces with the highest gender pay gap is the Finance and Insurance industry, where women earn 76¢ for every dollar earned by men when using uncontrolled data.

However, when these industries are controlled for compensable factors, a more "representative" figure can be obtained— women earn 98¢ for every dollar earned by men.

So does this mean women have nearly reached equitable standing in the workplace? Not so much.

"Representative" figures are only representative of the workplace as it is today, whereas controlled data accounts for the fact women are not represented in higher-level (≅ higher-earning) positions. Hence (on an uncontrolled 1:1 comparison) the pay disparity is heavily skewed against women.

This week, Wonder explores women in the workplace today and where the fight for both equity and equality goes from here.

Source: Source: Business Insider

Source: Source: Business Insider

Walking on broken glass.

While equality achieves fairness through treating everyone the same regardless of need (i.e. equal pay), equity refers to proportional representation (by race, gender, class, etc.) to achieve a fair outcome.

Needless to say, equality still has a ways to go before that box is finally checked off... in a 2019 Glassdoor report analyzing over 400,000 reported salaries earned by full-time workers in the US, and it was found that the unadjusted pay gap between men and women was 21.4%

According to Glassdoor’s report, the top five job titles with the largest gender pay gaps are Pilot, Chef, C-suite Executive, Computer programmer, and Professor:

  • Pilots had an average base pay of $78,627 with a gender pay gap of 26.6%.

  • Chefs had an average base pay of $45,929 with a gender pay gap of 24.6%.

  • C-suite Executives had an average base pay of $142,542 with a gender pay gap of 24%.

  • Computer programmers had an average base pay of$67,090 with a gender pay gap of 11.6%.

  • Professors had an average base pay of $96,038 with a gender pay gap of 11%.

Source: KornFerry

Source: KornFerry

So back to that equity thing...

As of 2019, women held a total of 21% of C-suite positions in the US, while women of color held 4%.

  • The share of women in senior management positions globally grew to 29% in 2019 and remained the same in 2020.

  • In a Korn Ferry analysis of the top 1,000 US companies by revenue, it was found that women held an average of 25% of C-suite roles across various industries.

  • As of 2020, there were 37 female CEOs among Fortune 500 companies, that is a share of 7.4%.

  • As of 2019, only about 25 of S&P 500 companies (5%) had women as their CEOs.

Source: Weforum.org

Source: Weforum.org

The powers that be.

In 2019, the apparel industry had the highest rate of female CEO replacements; 7 out of 13 (53.8% of) CEO replacements in the industry had women becoming the new CEOs.

  • Other industries that had notably high rates of female CEO replacements are hospitals (35.7%), health care and products (22.6%), and finance (20%).

According to PayScale’s 2020 pay gap report the top five industries with the lowest pay gaps are as follows:

  • STEM. For every $1 earned by men women also earn $1.

  • Tech. For every $1 earned by men, women also earn $1.

  • Arts/Entertainment. For every $1 earned by men, women earn 99¢.

  • Construction. For every $1 earned by men women earn 99¢.

  • Healthcare. For every $1 earned by men, women earn 99¢.

In some cases, women have not only broken the glass ceiling but outperformed their male counterparts. Women actually earned more than men in 34 of the 550 jobs based on 2010 census data.

Here some notable roles:

  • Female metal furnace operators, tenders, pourers, and casters make 101.3% as much as their male colleagues (Median earnings for women/men: $47,431 and $46,811.)

  • Female commercial divers make 101.8% as much as heir male colleagues (Median earnings for women/men: $51,469 and $50,584.)

  • Female medical transcriptionists make 132.8% as much as their male colleagues (Median earnings for women/men: $30,504 and $22,970.)

  • Female automotive body and related repairers make 123.6% as much as their male colleagues, even though women are outnumbered 43:1. (Median earnings for women/men: $54,177 and $43,827.)

  • The #1 pay gap being that of Female skincare specialists, an overwhelmingly female dominated field, 73:1. Women make 290.6% as much as their male colleagues (Median earnings for women/men: $35,956 and $12,372.)

For our full report on Women in the Workplace, check out our research here.

What can we help you this week?

Not yet subscribed to the Digest? join our mailing list.

Chris Connors