The State of the Gender Pay Gap 2018
How big is the gender pay gap, and how does it increase as workers climb the corporate ladder?
New this year, we explored how career disruptions – or taking time off from the workforce – impact wages for women and men.
The Gender Pay Gap Persists
WOMEN EARN 77.9 CENTS FOR EVERY DOLLAR EARNED BY MEN.
In other words, the median salary for women is roughly 22 percent lower than the median salary for men into 2018. This is a slight improvement from 2016, when the median salary for women was roughly 24 percent lower than the median salary for men. What about the pay gap once all compensable factors such as experience, industry and job level are accounted for? It’s still not zero. In fact, when an equally qualified man and woman do the same job, the woman earns 97.8 cents for every dollar earned by the man. Unfortunately, the uncontrolled pay gap hasn’t changed since our 2016 study.
WOMEN ARE STILL PAID LESS INTO 2018
UNCONTROLLED GENDER PAY GAP
COMPARING ALL WORKING WOMEN TO ALL WORKING MEN.
WOMEN EARN
78¢
FOR EVERY $1 EARNED BY MEN
CONTROLLED GENDER PAY GAP
COMPARING SIMILAR WOMEN AND MEN IN SIMILAR JOBS.
WOMEN EARN
98¢
FOR EVERY $1 EARNED BY MEN
THE OPPORTUNITY GAP
THERE ARE RELATIVELY FEW WOMEN AT THE TOP
Our data show that at the start of their careers, men and women tend to work at similar job levels, most often entering the workforce at the individual contributor level: 72 percent of men and 74 percent of women in the age group 20-29 are in individual contributor roles. This figure represents the uncontrolled –or “raw” — gender pay gap, which looks at the median salary for all men and women regardless of job type or worker seniority.
Over the course of their career, men move into higher level roles at significantly higher rates than women. By mid-career, men are 70 percent more likely to be in executive roles than women. By late career, men are 142 percent more likely to be in VP or C-suite roles.
On the flip side, women are more likely than men to remain in individual contributor positions over the course of their careers. By mid career, 60 percent of women are in individual contributor positions vs. 52 percent of men. By late career, 59 percent of women are in still individual contributor positions vs. 43 percent of men.
WOMEN ARE POORLY REPRESENTED AT HIGHER LEVELS OF THE TALENT PIPELINE
