Women Still Make Just 82 Cents On The Dollar Compared To Men

News just in: women earn less than men. No surprise there, it’s hardly an earth-shattering revelation. But what is shocking is that researchers mostly have no idea what’s contributing to the gender wage pay. 

What’s more, according to the latest Gender Pay Gap Report, the needle has hardly moved in the last two decades, with U.S. women typically earning 82 cents for every dollar earned by men; little changed from the 80 cents they earned 20 years ago.  

So, here we are, in 2023, and not only does the gender pay gap still cost women about $90,000 in lifetime earnings, but the exact reason why is still somewhat of an open question––even in this data-driven day and age. 

Achieving equity 

Achieving gender pay parity involves many steps, not least actually figuring out why there’s been so little movement on it in so many years.  

Researchers believe it’s because of the continued conscious and unconscious discrimination and bias in hiring and pay decisions, while activists say the U.S’s gender pay gap can only be fully closed by government-led structural changes, such as universal childcare and legislation mandating equal pay.  

But the first step is for companies across the country to evaluate where they stand––and that means conducting a gender pay gap analysis.  

While more than three quarters of America’s largest companies don’t disclose their pay gap analysis, other organizations are certainly well ahead of the curve. 

According to Equileap, an international data and insights firm that tracks corporate gender equity worldwide, General Motors is one of only three companies globally to achieve equal pay in the truest sense of the word. It achieved an average unadjusted gender pay gap of 3 percent or less in all bands––top, middle, and bottom––of pay.  

Beauty giant L’Oréal is also among the top-ranked companies worldwide for achieving equal pay and gender parity over the last decade––46 percent of the executives at L’Oréal USA are women and pay equity averages within 5 percent.  

And, in 2009, Starbucks set about tackling equal pay. A decade later it announced; “Starbucks has reached 100 percent pay equity for partners of all genders and races performing similar work across the United States.” 

The fast-food titan that is McDonald’s shortly followed suit and, in October 2021, achieved equal pay across company-owned U.S. restaurants. By the end of 2022, the company was on track to close all remaining gender pay gaps across its U.S. and international markets.

Equal pay for equal work 

And if you think all tech companies lag far behind other industries when it comes to pay equality, you can think again. In 2018, Adobe announced that all of its male and female employees in the U.S. would be receiving equal pay for equal work. Intel did the same, releasing a diversity and inclusion report the same year that showed the company has reached 100 percent gender and racial pay equity in the U.S.  

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Apple also has an Equal Pay Stance, saying: “Equal work deserves equal pay. This past year, we looked at the total compensation for U.S. employees and closed the gaps we found. We’re now analyzing the salaries, bonuses, and annual stock grants of all our employees worldwide. If a gap exists, we’ll address it. And we’ll continue our work to make sure we maintain pay equity.”  

If you’ve always wanted to work at Apple, it is currently looking for a Software Engineer – Apple Pay based in Raleigh. If you love crafting elegant solutions to highly sophisticated challenges, then this could be perfect for you. You’ll find all the details here.  

As far back as 2015, Salesforce conducted a company-wide audit which revealed a $6 million pay disparity between men and women. Having pledged to close this pay gap, Salesforce invested $10.3 million in ensuring equal pay for equal work for not only women, but also minorities and underrepresented groups.  

Over the next four years, the company made significant improvements, finding in its 2019 Salesforce Equal Pay Update that 5 percent of its 35,000 employees required adjustments towards equal pay.  

“Every CEO needs to look at if they’re paying men and women the same,” said Saleforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, at the 2017 World Economic Forum. “That is something that every single CEO can do today. We all have modern human resource management systems, but as a CEO are you willing to step up and say I pay men and women the same?”  

If this sounds like the kind of company you want to work for, you’re in luck. The tech giant is hiring. Check out this particularly interesting role for a Staff Data Scientist.  

There’s no doubt that pay equity is no easy fix. It took Starbucks a solid decade to figure it out. And even once the goal has been reached, pay equity is not guaranteed––companies need to continue to monitor and measure, all the while making adjustments and reminding themselves that it isn’t just the right thing to do by its employees, it also makes good business sense.  

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