Watch the video "Why Does the Gender Wage Gap exist?"

https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2019/03/28/gender-wage-gap-orig.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-career/

There’s been much discussion in recent years about the gender wage gap: the idea that women are paid less than men in similar roles. If you have an opinion about the gender wage gap, it’s likely a strong one – you might be firmly on the “it exists” side or the “it’s a myth” side of the argument.

Angela Stringfellow's April 29, 2019 article "Is the Gender Wage Gap a Myth or Reality? 27 Experts Debate the Wage Gap Issue" (https://www.wonolo.com/blog/gender-wage-gap-myth-or-real/ ), Richard Quinn a Retired Vice-President of Compensation and Benefits with 50 years of experience designing and managing pension, 401k, and other benefit plans for a Fortune 200 company and designing and conducting retirement planning courses as well as publishing over 250 articles on related subjects stated "Of course the wage gap is real, but the idea it results from outright sex discrimination in setting pay levels is a myth...". Another expert, Roslyn Dawson Thompson, the President and CEO of Dallas Women's Foundation states that "The gender wage gap is real..." and noted that "If you take men and women in comparable jobs working comparable hours, women are paid less than men. Nationally, women make 80 cents for every dollar men make. In Texas, we just released a study (The Economic Status of Women in Texas and The Economic Status of Women in Collin, Dallas and Denton Counties, produced in collaboration with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research) concluding that women make 79.6 cents on the dollar compared with similarly employed men."

The 2019 State of Wage Inequality in the Workplace report (https://hired.com/page/wage-inequality-report ) key findings (noted below) reveal there is still work to do even though the wage gap is narrowing.

Key Findings

3% The current wage gap in tech

60% The percentage of time men are offered more for the same role, at the same company

61% The percentage of time women are asking for lower salaries than men

41% The percentage of time companies are interviewing only men for a given role

65% The percentage of women that feel discriminated against in the workplace

9% The average wage gap for Hispanic women compared to white men

9% The wage gap in Boston — wider than all other major markets

12% The wage gap within DevOps for men and women early in their careers

8% The wage gap between LGBTQ+ women and white men

Organizations and HR leaders need to continue to address pay equity issues as a matter of compliance and to protect one’s reputation for talent aquisition. Workers today are choosing to align themselves with organizations that have values that match theirs and fairness is a value most workers identify with.

Commit to examine your pay and recognition practices to ensure fairness and to position yourself well in the war for talent, and differentiate your organization as an employer of choice.