Q: As a father of two girls, I’m interested in the “gender pay gap” topic hoping by the time my kids enter the workforce it will be a non-issue. I saw a headline saying that when properly “adjusted” the gap narrows down from 77 cents on the dollar to 95 cents. What’s this adjustment?
A: We’ve all seen the headlines and heard the sound bites. “On average, women make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns”. But this can be misleading because it suggests it’s all about discrimination, when it’s not. Yes, women earn less than men for many reasons but discrimination (although present like in this example) isn’t the huge factor. The big culprits are career/job selection and taking time for child rearing.
The study you are referring to was just published by Glassdoor.com. They looked at over half a million full-time salaries, and at first the gender gap started near the familiar 23%. But once they adjusted for worker age, education and years of experience, the gap shrunk to 19%. They further adjusted for job title, employer and location, and the gap shrunk to 5%. This is the “unexplained” part of the gap, and it’s probably the true size of discrimination/gender bias.
Career/Job Selection
Many women choose careers such as teaching or nursing that allow more scheduling flexibility for raising kids. They avoid jobs that -although highly paid- require extended travel or high physical risk (men make up over 90% of on-the-job fatalities).
Child Rearing
But even when women choose gender-neutral careers such as law or finance, they tend to take time off to have kids. Even if only a few months, these absences take a high toll on career advancement. Women also tend to work fewer hours than men during this time. This contributes to lost career opportunities that women don’t recover from quickly, if ever.
So, yes, it’s possible that by the time your girls join the workforce that 5% gender bias will have shrunk even further. But as you can see, the biggest part of the gap is attributable to factors that they can choose. So depending on their priorities, they can choose wisely.
© Copyright Eva Del Rio
Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com
