By Kevin Gray
Katie Donavan—founder and consultant at Equal Pay Negotiations LLC, which helps individuals achieve pay equity and equitable representation in leadership—highlights the two basic causes of pay gaps for women:
- Women are underpaid doing the same and similar jobs as men; and
- Women are underrepresented in leadership.
“Women don’t make it to the higher-paying jobs of VPs and C-Suite jobs at the rate comparable to men,” Donovan explains.
“The slowdown in career progress starts at the very first step of movement. In entry-level and individual- contributor jobs, women representation is approximate to their representation in the general population. However, at the very first promotion to manager, the representation of women drops significantly.” (Note: NACE’s research indicates the gap begins right out of college.)
According to a report by McKinsey and Lean In, women drop from 48% of entry-level positions to 40% of managers.
“As to the pay at each job level, it is very hard to find a job in which equal pay exists,” Donovan points out.
She cites research by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows there are fewer than 20 jobs in which women earn 99% or more of what men earn. Furthermore, when women obtain more education to improve their income, the pay gaps widen.
Read More on the NACE Website.
