A recent survey by CareerBuilder shows that nearly a third of women do not believe that they are making as much as their male counterparts, even though they have similar experience and qualifications. The same study shows that 12% of men feel that way.
Source: CharlieAJA / iStock / Getty
The Equal Pay Day survey was conducted in April, 2018 among more than 800 HR managers and recruiters as well as over 800 workers. Here are some of the results.
Expectations
Does inequality at work start with differences in expectations? Men are more likely to expect higher job levels during their career — 29% of men think they will reach a director level or higher, compared to 22% of women. A quarter of women (25%) never expect to reach above an entry-level role, compared to 9% of men. Almost a third of women (31%) think they’ve hit a glass ceiling within their organization.
| Job Level Expected to Reach During Career | Men | Women |
| Company Owner | 7% | 6% |
| Senior Management (CEO, CFO, CTO, etc.) | 6% | 4% |
| Vice President | 4% | 2% |
| Director | 12% | 10% |
| Manager | 30% | 27% |
| Professional/technical role | 33% | 26% |
| Entry level | 9% | 25% |
The differences in expectations extend to salary. More than a third of women (35%) don’t expect to reach a salary over $50,000 during their career, compared to 17% of men, while roughly half of men (47%) expect to reach a six-figure salary, compared to 22% of women.
Women also tend to be less satisfied with opportunities for advancement at work. Only 34% of women are satisfied with career advancement opportunities at their current employer, compared to 44% of men, and 30% of women do not feel they have the same career advancement opportunities as men who have the same skills and qualifications at their organization, compared to 12% of men. They are also less likely to be satisfied with training and learning opportunities at their employer than men (43 to 55%).
Employers Stepping Up?
The overwhelming majority of employers (94%) think there should be equality of pay in the U.S., but when acting on it, employers may be less sure. More than one in 10 (15%) employers said they do not believe female workers make the same wage as their male counterparts at their organization. Half of HR managers think that female workers make the same wage as their male counterparts at their organization, and 35% said they would hope they do.
Should pay be transparent or forbidden to be discussed? Eighty-two% of employers said there should be transparency of pay in the U.S., and 42% of employers said that proposed legislation that prohibits employers from asking job candidates for their salary history will help close the gender pay gap since salary histories cannot be discussed.
Research Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by The Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 888 hiring and human resource managers ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) and 809 employees ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government), between November 28 and December 20, 2017. Data for employers were weighted where necessary by company size and job level, and data for employees were weighted where necessary by gender, age, race/ethnicity, region, income, education, and industry to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.