Tag Archive for: Gender Pay Gap

OP-ed: Using Technology and Remote Work as the Great Equalizer

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Silvina MoschiniSilvina Moschini explains how she leverages technology and remote work to hack the gender employment gap and empower women.

I didn’t major in computer science or engineering. My background is in communications and marketing. But, I discovered the power of technology early in my career and I realized that in it lies the opportunity to innovate, disrupt and solve problems.

I had the opportunity to work for tech giants like Compaq and was fortunate to be part of the 1990’s dot-com explosion, leading communications for one of the most successful Latin American startups of that era. Patagon was acquired by Banco Santander, a Spanish bank. The dot-com bubble eventually burst. Shortly after, I was recruited by Visa International as Vice President of Communications for Latin America, leading their FinTech division-the moment when I discovered that my life’s calling was to become an entrepreneur.

The leap to entrepreneurship

After leaving the corporate world, I took a leap of faith and founded a consulting company whose mission was to provide digital transformation for large corporations. As a self-employed entrepreneur, I had the opportunity to live anywhere I wanted, so I moved to Verona—my favorite place in Italy. I had a thriving business and was working with a team of professionals based in all corners of the world. But, I was facing a challenge: I needed more visibility and collaboration with my remote team, because as their leader, I lacked the tools to gauge progress in an effective and transparent way.

Necessity is the greatest driver of innovation, and it was clear to me that technology was the answer to my problem. So, I made it my mission to design and develop a solution that would provide transparency and visibility to help me keep my team accountable while allowing me to make decisions in real-time, and pivot as needed.

In 2012, TransparentBusiness software as a service was born and I began to pioneer the future of work, dedicating myself to transforming the way people work. What started as a solution for my company became an award-winning remote work and enablement tool that is now used by thousands of clients across the world.

From solution to ecosystem

During the initial years, I spent most of my days explaining the benefits of remote work, which often fell on deaf ears. Many business leaders were skeptical about this work model that relied on accountability and transparency instead of in-person, in-office oversight. However, I also began to see a shift, as millennials started to become an integral part of the workforce. The on-demand economy and companies such as Uber, Netflix and Airbnb who were disrupting their industries emphasized the importance of continuous innovation. And, each day the companies we spoke to become more receptive to remote work models.

But, I also knew that the future of work needed more than great software. It needed to connect the dots with the talent that was in search of remote work opportunities. And this is how our Talent as a Service offering was born, starting with Yandiki, a talent marketplace where companies could source creative talent on-demand to scale their teams globally, using TransparentBusiness technology.

The female quotient

After about three years, we made a game-changing discovery. All our data demonstrated that women were outperforming men in all the performance metrics that we were measuring through our platform. We dove deep into the data and conducted more thorough research of the women who were in the marketplace as freelancers, full-time consultants, and full-time professionals. We realized that we were attracting women with excellent professional qualifications who had been in search of remote and flexible job opportunities. They were thriving on our platform because it offered them the flexibility that they needed to balance work and life and rejoin the workforce without having to leave their loved ones.

SheWorks! was created to empower women to find better career options, and to hack the employment gender gap, because 51 percent of women with children abandon their jobs due to lack of flexibility. We officially launched the company at the Global Women Principles’ Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in 2017, reinforcing our commitment to not just be a part of the narrative, but effect change by helping them find employment and opportunities.

The pandemic effect

The global pandemic threw the world into a crisis that was unprecedented. The loss of life and the economic windfall was felt in every corner of the planet. Technology once again emerged as a lifeline, helping people stay connected to their friends and family, enabling children and young adults to continue their education, and empowering companies to continue to operate. Overnight, the world shifted from physical to virtual environments, and working from home became the norm for millions of people.

Entrepreneurs know that out of crises come opportunity, and many sectors thrived in this new normal. At TransparentBusiness, remote work was our way of doing business for almost a decade, so we were prepared and fortunate to have the skills and the tools to help clients of all sizes and from all industries navigate through this time of uncertainty.

As we look beyond the pandemic, we can say that the great work-from-home experiment of 2020 made one thing clear: Remote work is here to stay. Business leaders and employers alike realized that productivity and profitability did not decrease when employees worked remotely—in fact, sometimes it increased. And, this levels the playing field and opens many new opportunities for women.

Technology as the great equalizer

Women were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. They faced the burden of childcare, lower-paying jobs in sectors that experienced closures, and overall lost 5.4 million jobs since the pandemic hit, nearly 1 million more job losses than men. Fortunately, as we look beyond the pandemic, I am optimistic and see a silver lining.

Remote work was normalized during the pandemic, and this in the long term will benefit women. As children return to school and we transition away from crisis mode, women will be in a better position to pursue remote career opportunities that allow them to have flexibility at home. More importantly, they will be able to compete for jobs globally instead of within a four-mile radius of their home, opening a world of opportunities.

And, all of this is made possible by technology and the digital transformation that we have experienced in the last decade. Technology is the great equalizer because it enables us to learn, work and create. As we look to the future, it’s important to leverage not only remote work but remote learning. The digital acceleration brought about by the pandemic created many new job opportunities. However, for women to thrive in the digital economy they will need to develop new and highly demanded skills to compete globally.

Leaving the world better than how I found it

I grew up in a very competitive household. My brother is a professional polo player and my sister excelled at equestrian sports. As a young girl, I strived to find my place in my family. Although I wasn’t into sports, I had a competitive spirit. My dad always fueled that fire, encouraging me to be independent and to pursue my dreams. And, he taught me one of the most important lessons in life: True independence starts with financial freedom, and the ability to make your own money. This lesson instilled in me a sense of self-reliance that became a positive obsession that drove my career and entrepreneurial journey.

As a Latin American woman and a technology entrepreneur, I have faced many challenges. But, I have never given up and work daily to build the castle that I’ve always dreamed of. And, more importantly, I have made it my mission to help women do the same through SheWorks! and more recently through Unicorn Hunters, an initiative that I co-created to help women entrepreneurs access capital because women-led startups received just 2.3% of VC funding in 2020, and what’s alarming is that this wasn’t due to the pandemic. The figure peaked at 2.8% in 2019.

Helping women access economic empowerment has been my life’s work, and I plan to continue to give back in any way that I can. My journey has been challenging, but also rewarding and I want to leave the world better than how I found it.

Silvina Moschini is the Founder and CEO of SheWorks!, a cloud-based digital talent marketplace that was created as a way for professional women to find flexible global employment opportunities. Ms. Moschini has made a point to provide women who want to grow their business with the same options as men through digital transformation.

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5 Negotiation Tactics Women Can Use to Fight the Gender Wage Gap

Negotiation tacticsNegotiation seems to be the best way to fight the gender pay gap. In general, it has been shrinking in recent years, according to a glassdoor study, the current status of the wage gap in the US is still at about 21%, which figures into women making an astonishingly unfair .79 cents for every dollar a man makes in aggregrate. We understand that each company and each industry differs in efforts to remedy this historical issue, but one thing is clear at the current rate it will take about 40 years to reach an equitable pay scale, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.  Negotiation tactics can be an important tool for women in the fight for equal pay.

Negotiation Tips for Women

Potentially the number one weapon in the arsenal against the gender pay gap is improved negotiation tactics for women. According to a recent Harvard Law article, studies surrounding the negotiation of salary demonstrate that male candidates tend to use tactics that achieve better results than women. Deeply ingrained societal biases surrounding gender roles prevent traditional male-centric negotiation strategies from being as effective for women as they might otherwise be. However, there are ways that women can significantly affect the gap by educating themselves in tactics that work well, combating gender biases and stereotypes.

University of Münster’s Jens Mazei and colleagues studied the strengths women had when compared to men in negotiation in a paper called “A Meta-Analysis on Gender Differences in Negotiation Outcomes and Their Moderators” published in the Psychological Bulletin. They discovered some intriguing ideas that indicated how women could leverage strategies that would narrow the gender pay gap significantly. Here are five findings to use in your negotiation approach:

1. Reframe the conversation: Mazei’s research indicates that due to a societal understanding of women as nurturing, women in negotiation are more effective when they consider the idea that they are working on behalf of someone other than themselves. When women come into a negotiation with a supportive notion that they are fielding a larger purpose, such as getting more for their team or even fighting gender inequality so that the next generation will get a fair shake, they tend to be more effective in negotiation.

2. Get used to the bargaining table: Like anything else, negotiation takes practice. Because, perhaps, gender bias perpetuates the attitude that it is unseemly for women to engage in negotiations, men generally have put a great deal more time into it. This lack of experience, however, is a large factor in the imbalance between men and women in this area. Getting as much negotiation experience as possible will help even the odds significantly. Practicing bargaining with others in simulation on a regular basis can have a very positive effect on the real process.

3. Informational gathering including salary transparency: Having all of the facts surrounding a position may be even more crucial for women in negotiation than it would be for a male candidate. According to Glassdoor, when women know the specific salaries, for example, of those that work in comparable positions, they have an improved ability to negotiate more equitable compensation. Indeed, companies that practice more transparency in salary have been shown to more actively lessen the wage gap in their workplaces. In addition, Mazei mentions, not only do women feel more confident in negotiation when they have this kind of information, because it is not subjective, it is easier for women to reference a concrete number without facing adverse reactions from men who might otherwise feel their authority challenged.

4. Control your visual cues: Understanding how you are presenting yourself when in an interview is obviously very useful. Some tactics that have been suggested when it comes to body language that helps women in negotiation is to make regular eye contact. Also, make low broad gestures that originate from the shoulders instead of at the elbow; this is something that expands your body allowing you to take up space more effectively. Making sure you are presenting yourself in a position of strength is something that male negotiators do regularly and should be a common practice for women as well.

5. Think about your word choices: According to executive speech coach Darlene Price, aspects of vocal inflection like upspeak can undermine the idea that you have confidence in your statement. So can putting qualifying words on the ends of otherwise concrete statements; it creates the impression of hedging. If you find you are adding phrases like, “Do you agree?” or “Right?” unconsciously to the end of statements, it is not supporting your cause and promotes the idea that you require validation for your thoughts.

It’s unfortunate that women need to work harder than men in the current system to achieve something as basic as salary equity, but many do. Employing negotiation tactics like these can help women to reach this desired reality more quickly.

Guest Contributed by Sierra Skelly

About the Author

Sierra Skelly is a creative writer and marketer from San Diego. She loves red wine, black coffee, and chilling murder mystery novels with a strong female lead.

The opinions and views expressed by guest contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of theglasshammer.com

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The Girl With The Draggin’ W-2

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By theglasshammer team

pay gap

Image via Shutterstock

Wells Fargo Securities’ Economics Department recently released a report entitled, The Girl with the Draggin’ W-2, which explores the complexities of the gender pay gap. Following publication, we received many questions from interested readers. Diane Schumaker-Krieg, Global Head of Research, Economics, & Strategy for Wells Fargo Securities, responds to these questions below.

  • What were the most surprising results of the study?

Despite huge advances in technology and the ability to work remotely, the highest paying jobs continue to reward those who can work the longest and least flexible hours. Physically showing up at the office (or wherever you’re required to be) is still a prerequisite for getting ahead. And that puts primary caregivers — usually working moms — at a disadvantage.

  • Why haven’t we closed the gender gap? Why has progress stalled? Because society hasn’t fully accepted that fixing the problem for women means we also have to fix the problem for men. Both men and women need greater flexibility in their lives. Yet, it is still difficult for men to tell their employers they need time off to take their child to the doctor or to tell new acquaintances at a barbecue that they’re stay-at-home dads. Until these evolving realities are more socially accepted, the costs/burdens will fall on women. Some of the most successful women in our Research division have spouses that are full-time dads. In fact, Jodi Kantor of The New York Times wrote an insightful piece a couple of years ago, “Wall Street Mothers, Stay- Home Fathers” that features three senior women in my department.
  • Given that female enrollment in college is surpassing that of men, why aren’t we seeing increased pay parity?

Actually we are. The wage gap would be six percent higher if women were not out-achieving men educationally. But women are more likely than men to major in fields that pay less upon graduation — for example, education and social work versus computer science and engineering.

  • Talk about the role that cultural and societal expectations play. Is part of the problem that women don’t advocate for themselves or seek out sponsors? What remains unexplained about the gender pay gap?

Not advocating for oneself forcefully enough is certainly a factor. A well-known Carnegie Mellon study showed that men are four times more likely than women to ask for a raise and when women do ask, they typically request 30 percent less than men. This may be rational because women are viewed more negatively for asking! Of course, if you don’t ask, the answer is always “no.”

  • Another factor is women’s tolerance for risk and failure. There are many studies showing that men will apply for a job if they meet just 60 percent of the qualifications, while women feel they need to be 100 percent qualified. This fear of failure is a big factor holding women back.

And women tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored. Mentors can be great sounding boards, but their influence on one’s career trajectory often ends with advice. On the other hand, sponsors tend to be senior executives who can publically advocate on behalf of their protégés and accelerate their advancement. Women are 50 percent less likely than men to have a sponsor.

Finally, women often don’t get the benefit of honest performance feedback because male managers are reluctant to provide it, fearing an “emotional response” or risk to their own careers.

  • Are there specific industries that perpetuate stereotypes and gender barriers?

I I have worked on Wall Street for most of my career, and it has certainly gotten a lot better, especially on the trading floor. But overall, hard-charging occupations like investment banking, private equity, venture capital and M&A are more difficult for anyone, not just women, who need more flexibility. One of the advantages of working in Research is that while there is a great deal of travel and frequent client dinners, there is no penalty for writing a research report at your kitchen table at 3 A.M. So even within hard-charging occupations, there are opportunities for flexibility.

  • What is the economic reasoning behind closing the gender gap?

Greater labor force participation — many women are now on the sidelines because after factoring in the cost of childcare (which has grown more than twice as fast as median household income), for many, it doesn’t pay to work. A McKinsey Global Institute study indicated that full gender equality could add 11% to 26% to global GDP by 2025 — a staggering $12 to $28 trillion. One positive factor is women returning to the workforce and working late into their 60’s and even 70’s. Nearly 30 percent of women aged 65-69 are working (up from 15 percent in the late 80’s).

  • How can businesses benefit from closing the gender pay gap? Do you think corporations are realizing this?

For businesses, closing the gender pay gap would not only attract more women but just as importantly help businesses retain the high-caliber women they already have by making it more economical for working moms to stay in the game. And of course there are countless studies showing that more diverse companies simply perform better — higher ROE, higher sales growth and stronger corporate oversight. That’s because they’re tapping into a deeper pool of talent that mirrors the diversity of their customers and discourages groupthink.

  • Are there any policy solutions — either in the legislative or private sector that would help to move the needle forward?

On the legislative front, I think it’s very interesting that the state of Massachusetts now makes it illegal to ask a job applicant about their prior compensation. This could be a huge step forward, since women are generally paid less and asking for prior compensation perpetuates the wage gap.

In the UK, companies with 250 or more employees must publish their gender pay gaps within the next year under a new legal requirement and will be encouraged to detail an action plan to address inequities.

In the private sector, shareholders can and should hold companies accountable. In fact, nine tech companies were asked by shareholders to study compensation and commit to closing the pay gap. Several of them publicly made commitments to do so. Amazon, Apple and Intel have reported that they’re near 100 percent pay parity.8

Diane Schumaker-Krieg is Global Head of Research, Economics and Strategy and leads all fundamental research across all sectors and asset classes for Wells Fargo.

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The Gender Pay Gap

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This month we celebrate Equal Pay Day. Take a look at these informative Pay Gap articles previously published on theglasshammer.

This week we hit “Equal Pay Day” on Tuesday, a day which symbolizes the extra days women must work to make the same salary as her male peers did last year. According to the Demystifying The Gender Pay Gap survey by Glassdoor, the biggest myth about the gender pay gap is that it doesn’t exist at all, as 7 in 10 employees across seven countries assumed men and women received the same pay for the same work. But even when narrowed down to an apples-to-apples comparison within companies, researchers found a significant gender gap exists.

Closing the investment gap for women as well as the better- documented pay gap needs to happen. What is the investment gap? And why are most women, even highly paid professional women still missing out? Sallie Krawcheck just wrote a post about the cost of not realizing what we are missing financially by not investing properly on LinkedIn.

money money moneyYou don’t need to work in a male dominated occupation to find your pay check weighs light relative to your male colleagues – particularly, if you’re in business.

In March 2015, the US Census Bureau released the latest pay statistics from 2013, including median earnings by detailed occupation, showing that full-time working women earn 78.8% of what full-time working men do. The census data revealed that across 342 occupations, women (barely) out-earn men in only nine.

Narrow the Hidden Executive Pay Gap Starting Now

Woman-on-a-ladder-searchingWomen reaching for the top rungs of the executive ladder will want to watch for the hidden pay gap. As Bloomberg writes, “Even top female workers can’t catch a break when it comes to pay inequality.”

As women move to senior ranks, the gender pay gap widens. Your best career management play? Begin closing it now.

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Me, Myself and I: Closing the Gap Between Perception and Reality

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man-and-woman-standing-on-money-featuredBy Nneka Orji

When your colleagues describe you and your abilities, do you recognise the description? Does it accurately reflect the reputation you’ve worked hard to establish or is there a chasm between how they perceive you and how you would like to be seen?

In a 2010 report by Opportunity Now, 57% of women pointed to the challenges of being seen as less committed at work as a result of also meeting personal and family commitments. This was in addition to 49% of women identifying “stereotyping and preconceptions of women’s roles and abilities” as barriers to progression. If perception plays such a significant role in female progression, surely we should be investing more time – both as organisations and individuals – in proactively addressing misperceptions.

It could be argued that organisations have gone some way in trying to tackle these gender-specific perception challenges through initiatives such as unconscious bias training, however a number of studies have shown that an individual level, women could be doing more to define and develop their brands to support their career progression. A recently published report by She Runs It, highlighted the gender divide when it comes to personal branding. Conducted with LinkedIn and EY and looking at over 4,000 companies in the media and marketing industry, the report found that on average, men in leadership roles had 15% more connections in their network than women. At every stage of their careers, women should be investing more time and effort in developing their professional networks and building stronger personal brands.

Branding for opportunities

Some readers may feel some level of cynicism or indeed a sense of dread at these words – “personal branding”. We usually associate brands with products and organisations, including brands such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Visa, and Amazon – all in the top 10 of WPP’s 2016 Top 100 BrandZ list. The idea of a personal brand may be seen as another fad trumpeted by self-proclaimed personal branding gurus, however study after study show the value in developing a personal brand.

Having a strong personal brand can open doors to new opportunities – a promotion or a new international opportunity. Even for those who have established personal brands, there may be a need to redefine your brand. According to marketing strategist and Duke University lecturer Dorie Clark, reinventing personal brand is particularly important when looking for a career change. While being an international trade expert may have served well to date, it may not be the brand that provides the best opportunities for the desired next phase of your career. In her “Reinventing Your Personal Brand” article, Dorie emphasises the importance of defining the destination, developing a clear narrative and other key considerations for a successful rebrand.

So does defining your personal brand mean reinventing yourself?

Reinventing brand vs reinventing you

According to Shelly Lazarus, the Chairman Emeritus of Ogilvy & Mather, the answer is no. Having worked with leaders across a number of organisations throughout her career, Shelly advises both women and men to ensure they are comfortable in their own skin rather than creating a brand that does not represent the individual. In her 2014 interview in Harvard Business Review, Shelly talked about the importance of resilience in every successful career and the obstacles created by an inauthentic voice and brand, particularly as women and men progress in their careers. While there may be a perception that personal brands should change with each promotion, Shelly emphasised the merits of consistency: “Brands exist in the hearts and minds of the people who use them, and if you suddenly try to switch them—which I’ve seen many corporations try to do —you alienate the customer.” The same applies to individuals.

Investing in you

Even the most cynical will hopefully acknowledge some of the merits of authentic personal branding in career progression; think of the leaders you find most inspiring and what their brand does for them. Personal branding is also critical to encouraging diverse representation across the global workforce – much needed in today’s organisations. While a quarter of a billion women have joined the workforce since 2006, according to Catalyst workforce participation rate decreased from 52.4% in 1995 to 49.6% in 2015. The report also shows that women hold only 12% of all board seats globally.

More needs to be done to reset expectations and correct misperceptions; women taking full ownership of their personal brands and clearly articulating how they would like to be perceived – not how others choose to perceive them – is an important part in the journey to more balanced representation across our organisations.

Before starting on your journey to defining and living your authentic personal brand, here are four considerations:

1. Define your brand: It is all too easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and try to develop a completely new brand. However it is important to pause and acknowledge the valuable traits of your existing brand and use this as a basis to reshape your brand. If your stakeholders always look to you because you have a track record of moving ideas from concept to reality, don’t take this for granted. Maintain this unique aspect of your brand and build on it to, along with other aspects you would like to be known for.

2. Live the brand (and deliver): As the businessman Henry Ford said, “[y]ou can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Being clear in your mind about your personal brand is important, however it means nothing unless you deliver on it and establish your desired reputation amongst your colleagues and broader network. In the same way a number of the aforementioned BrandZ brands have established themselves as market disruptors and innovators, you too will need to demonstrate that you are able to live your brand by delivering on assignments and making the right impact.

3. Champion others and be championed: The She Runs It report highlighted the importance of championing others and also being championed – and men tend to champion others more proactively through endorsements than women. The report found that of the endorsements received by female professionals in leadership positions, only 30% of endorsements were made by other female professionals which compares to the 78% of endorsements made by men for other male professionals. What does this mean for you? Once you’ve developed your brand and demonstrated how you deliver on your brand, ensure you have a group of champions, including mentors, sponsors and fans, who can vouch for your credentials. Don’t forget to champion others while you are being championed.

4. Be authentic and remain consistent: Take a “me, myself and I” approach to personal branding. It is all too easy to emulate those individuals who seem to have it all, however the effort of living someone else’s brand can be all too exhausting and unsustainable. Focus on you and once you have established your own authentic brand, deliver consistently against it. Of course your brand may evolve as you progress or transition careers, but the fundamental characteristics of your brand should be unwavering.

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The Top 10 Graduate Employers For Women

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The top 10 graduate employers for women

Image via Shutterstock

Despite continuing advances in gender equality in the workplace and beyond, there’s a reason conversations about the issue continue: female graduates still face some disadvantages in the jobs market.

Recent reports have revealed the extent to which the gender pay gap still exists, and the difference can be seen between male and female graduates’ starting salaries. Data published in 2015 showed that twice as many men earn between £30,000-£40,000 than women, and that the median salary for female graduates was £1,000 less than that of males. And the level of women in senior management positions and on company boards is still proportionally lower across the workforce than that of men.

So there are plenty of reasons to apply to a company that is taking active steps to achieve true gender equality and diversity in the workplace, but which of them also offer good opportunities at graduate level?

We’ve put together this list by cross-referencing the most recent editions of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers and The Times Top 50 Employers for Women. And as there are 30 employers that make both lists, we narrowed it down by looking at where they placed on the Guardian’s UK 300 – a ranking of which employers graduates most want to work for.

The Big Four (professional services)

It may be a cheat to include 4 employers in one, but all of the UK’s leading professional services firms – Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and EY – performed well in the rankings, and between them planned to hire around 5,100 graduates in 2016.

The 2015-16 Graduate Employers list saw PwC top the table for the twelfth year in a row. Its graduate scheme is built upon strong foundations of mentoring, training, development, and support. And though it’s biggest base is in London, there are 29 locations across the UK that graduates can join. The firm also runs a high potential female development programme, Breakthrough, and sets gender and ethnicity targets for each grade pool.

Deloitte, KPMG, and EY also all rank within the top ten graduate employers, and have been recognised for their commitment to gender equality in the workplace, and for running a variety of schemes and programmes to help women maximise their potential. EY’s Managing Partner for Talent in the UK and Ireland, Liz Bingham, stressed the importance of an approach that encompasses the entire workforce, improving diversity ‘from graduate entry to the boardroom’.

Deloitte has also chosen to publically engage with the problem of the gender pay gap, reporting its own average wage gaps across the company and at each grade; the firm is determined to balance the numbers and has set new targets for women in senior positions.

MI5 (public service)

A far cry from the popular media image of the gentleman spy – white, male, private school and Oxbridge educated – the Secret Service is actually well recognised for its commitment to diversity.

As well as establishing itself as a top employer for women and taking strides in employing Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic staff, MI5 was named Employer of the Year 2016 in Stonewall’s list of best employers for LGBT staff. Staff of all gender identities and sexual orientations are recruited and work in every area of the organisation.

The Service recruits around 80 graduates, who can expect to earn between £28,500-£30,000 at entry level, who join graduate programmes for Intelligence Officers and Intelligence Data Analysts.

Unilever (consumer goods)

Unilever UK has 40 brands covering a variety of commodities, from soup to soap. The employer recruits 50 graduates at starting salaries of £30,000 to its Management and Development programme. It also employs another 50 or so students on industrial or summer placements.

The company demonstrates internal commitment to and external promotion of gender equality; at the Business in the Community Workplace Gender Equality Awards it received the Female FTSE 100 Award, which recognises the affiliate organisation with the most women on its board.

JP Morgan (financial services)

Rising to 14th place in the Top Graduate Employers list, JP Morgan is the first global finance firm to achieve such a high ranking. Although it has no set graduate recruitment targets, the bank hires several graduate analysts on competitive salaries each year, and many of these are recruited straight out of its competitive internship programmes. Developing junior talent is considered vital.

Globally, the firm is dedicated to creating a positive culture for people from diverse backgrounds, and in the USA 55% of representatives are female. As well as promoting equality in the workplace, JP Morgan has also contributed to external projects aimed at helping women. For instance, the bank partnered with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in 2014 to help female entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates, and hosted a discussion panel during Women’s History Month.

Goldman Sachs (financial services)

Goldman Sachs recruits around 400 graduates to join its New Analyst and New Associate Programmes. The programmes aim at helping graduates develop and become integrated members of the team, with access to several mentoring and training opportunities.

Amongst the bank’s policies promoting equality are its efforts to reach out to female undergraduates and sixth-formers in an attempt to encourage more women to go into what is still sometimes stereotyped as a male dominated culture. Efforts are also being made to promote more women into senior roles, both to further their careers and to create a greater number of female role models for entry-level women to look up to.

The bank also launched ‘10,000 Women’ in 2008, an initiative aimed at helping female entrepreneurs worldwide.

IBM UK (IT and telecommunications)

The IT company makes a concerted effort to reach out to girls at every stage of their education, running a Schools’ Outreach Programme, and even holding an annual ‘Take Our Daughters to Work’ day. There are also several initiatives aimed at supporting women in the company; globally, the firm has over 220 networking groups and over 50 of these are for women. In fact, the company’s website includes a section dedicated to the women of IBM.

It planned an intake of over 300 graduates, at salaries of £30,000 or more. Graduate hires also have access to the company’s generous benefits packages, ranging from travel insurance to a discount bicycle scheme.

Shell (oil and gas)

Shell’s recruitment target was between 80-100 graduates, on salaries of £32,500. Graduates can join the Commercial, Technical, or Corporate Function areas, and receive full training to ready them for on-going advancement in the company.

Shell aims to support equality and diversity at each stage of the employee life-cycle. Its recruitment programme looks to hire graduates from diverse backgrounds. The company has introduced a shared parental leave policy that matches their maternity leave policy. It also boasts several employee led diversity and inclusion networks, as well as development and mentoring schemes.

However, given the company layoffs that occurred early in 2016 in the face of weakened oil prices, this may not be the most secure industry to go into at the moment.

Procter and Gamble (consumer goods)

P&G onboards around 100 graduates in the UK at salaries of £30,000. Although the focus is on-the-job training – with graduates given responsibility from the start – the company encourages graduates to take training courses that are developed with external partners.

A driven approach to staff development has led P&G to achieve gender neutrality in the areas of sales, finance, and marketing. Most importantly, the UK leadership team is also balanced, with 8 men and 7 women in the most senior positions.

Microsoft (technology)

Recruiting 36 graduates on salaries of £34,700, roles at the tech giant are highly sought after. Graduates join the Microsoft Academy for College Hires (MACH) scheme, developing skills for a career in marketing, technology, or sales.

As well as seeking to encourage women to pursue careers in technology, and promoting women’s networks through such features as their separate women’s Facebook page, Microsoft has also launched an innovative internal strategy to drive inclusion. All employees are expected to complete a course on Unconscious Bias Training, encouraging both men and women to break down traditional gender barriers.

By expecting everybody to change their behaviours and to create an inclusive culture, Microsoft aims to build a truly equal workplace.

BAE Systems (engineering and industrial)

The 350 or more graduates joining BAE Systems can look forwards to salaries of £25,000 and up, and benefits that can include a £2,000 welcome bonus. Schemes include the Graduate Framework Programme (2 years), the Finance Leader Development Programme (5 years), and the Sigma Leadership Programme (3 years).

BAE Systems has taken a stand against all forms of bullying and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, signing the ‘No Bystanders’ pledge to take action against all such behaviours. It also uses a Diversity and Inclusion Matrix to track their progress in this matter – from a business that meets regulatory requirements to one that recognises diversity as a boost to their performance levels.

Claire Kilroy is a content writer for the UK’s leading graduate recruitment agency, Inspiring Interns. Check out their website if you’re on the hunt for internships or graduate jobs London.

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Apples-to-Apples, the Gender Pay Gap Exists

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money money moneyThis week we hit “Equal Pay Day” on Tuesday, a day which symbolizes the extra days women must work to make the same salary as her male peers did last year.

According to the Demystifying The Gender Pay Gap survey by Glassdoor, the biggest myth about the gender pay gap is that it doesn’t exist at all, as 7 in 10 employees across seven countries assumed men and women received the same pay for the same work. But even when narrowed down to an apples-to-apples comparison within companies, researchers found a significant gender gap exists.

The Apples-to-Oranges Gap

Every time the gender pay gap comes up, it seems we have the apples-to-oranges data and the apples-to-apples data. Apples-to-oranges data compares men’s earnings to women’s earnings without breaking down the factors at play.

The recent Catalyst data summary of Women’s Earnings And Income reports that in the U.S. in 2014, women earned 79% as much as men in annual earnings. Based on Census data of median weekly earnings in 2015, full-time working women earned 81% as much as men, but only 72% as much within full-time management, professional, and related occupations.

Data has shown that female income tends to level off around age 35-40, as gendered workplace penalties reach full swing, while male income doesn’t level until 50-55 years old. The American Association of University Women reports that “women are typically paid about 90 percent of what men are paid until around the age of 35, at which point median earnings for women start to grow much more slowly than median earnings for men. From around age 35 through retirement, women are typically paid 75 to 80 percent of what men are paid.”

This difference has a significant impact on women’s lives, resulting in an average of $10,800 less in annual earnings, or nearly a half million dollars across a career, and a dramatically lower retirement security (44% less median income) for longer-living women, which ultimately spells an economy issue.

The Apples-to-Apples Gap

In their recent survey, Glassdoor created apples-to-apples salary comparisons by factoring in “differences in education, experience, age, location, job title, industry and even company.”

In the U.S, they found an apples-to-oranges 24% pay gap, or that women earned 76% as much as men. When they controlled for age, education, and years of experience, the gap was 19%.

When they looked at the same job title at the same employer at the same location, the highly “adjusted”apples-to-apples gap was still 5.4% – women earned 94.6 cents on the dollar of her male peer sitting next to her.

For a full-time working woman at median earnings, that’s a $2,140 loss per year. But for a woman who earns $100,000 a year, the loss is $5,400 annually.

The “adjusted gap”also increased with age – 6.2% at 35-44 years old, 9.5% at 45-54 years old, and 10.5% at 55-64 years old.

Among industries, the “adjusted”pay gap for insurance was among the biggest at 7.2% and finance was 6.4%. Among occupations, C-Suite professionals had one of the largest gender pay gaps (27.7%).

Apples-to-Oranges Is Still a Gender Bias Issue

Gender bias is still a significant driver of an apples and oranges comparison – it’s a big factor of the context that makes the difference exist at all.

According to Robert Hohman, CEO of Glassdoor, “occupational sorting”explains 54% of the overall “unadjusted”pay gap – the sorting of men and women into different industries and different roles in the economy, through non-subtle and subtle societal influences.

Education and experience were minor factors of explanation (14%). In fact, an April Gender Pay Inequality report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee stated, “The typical woman with a graduate degree earns $5,000 less than the typical man with a bachelor’s degree,”and that “women’s median earnings are lower at every level of education.”

Sincerity Is Transparency

The gender pay gap has been stagnant for the last decade 2006 to 2015 (change was 20 times faster in the preceding decade) and is not except to close until 2059.

Recent executive proposals by President Obama to target the gender pay gap by having the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collect companies salary data has prompted reactions of government overreach, but the overall intention is to get targeted with a persistent problem.

As long as the persistent gender gap belongs to everyone, it belongs to nobody, and that’s why transparency matters. 70% of employees feel salary transparency is good for employee satisfaction and for business.

Certainly, a pointed finger sparks transparency, especially if it’s being pointed publicly or by shareholders, and especially if there’s nothing to hide. With the recent Glassdoor finding that female computer programmers experience one of the highest “adjusted”occupation pay gaps at 28.3%, the big names in Tech have been coming out to champion their equal pay.

On Monday, both Facebook and Microsoft announced publicly that men and women earn equally at their companies. Amazon and Apple have publicly stated similar findings based on employee pay surveys, prompted by shareholder proposals requesting disclosure of pay equity assessments, filed or co-filed by Pax World. Intel also shared their equal pay findings recently.

Now what if companies began to feel the same external pressure to disclose their C-Suite pay findings around that whopping 27.7% discrepancy?

When it comes to the gender pay gap, it seems the only real language of sincerity is indeed transparency, and companies have the chance now to use it.

By Aimee Hansen

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Is Temporal Flexibility Key to Closing The Gender Pay Gap?

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money money moneyYou don’t need to work in a male dominated occupation to find your pay check weighs light relative to your male colleagues – particularly, if you’re in business.

In March 2015, the US Census Bureau released the latest pay statistics from 2013, including median earnings by detailed occupation, showing that full-time working women earn 78.8% of what full-time working men do. The census data revealed that across 342 occupations, women (barely) out-earn men in only nine.

Across the nine, the female pay advantage is “nearly inconsequential,” ranging from .2% (counselers, dishwashers) to 6.2% (producers and directors), with a margin for error that could wipe the gap. Yet a very significant pay gap (advantage: male) persists across most professions, even when women are prevalent in them.

Data on relevant occupations illustrates the point:
Occupation % in occupation who are women Women’s earnings as a % of men’s earnings
Securities, commodities, & financial services sales agents  30%  55%
Financial specialists, all other  55%  60%
Personal financial advisors  31%  61%
Financial clerks, all other  61%  62%
Financial analysts  32%  63%
Financial managers  54%  64%
Market research analysts and marketing specialists 56%  75%
Accountants and Auditors  59%  75%
CEOs  23%  76%
Compensation, benefits, & job analysis specialists  74%  78%

Source: Drawn from US Census Bureau, 2013 American Community Survey

While frustrating gaps in occupations that are historically male-gendered (eg CEOS, financial analysts, securities) may come as less of a surprise, the gap within female skewed jobs (financial clerks, marketing, accounting) underlines that closing the gender pay gap takes more than female representation.

Are men just more valued? Nancy F. Clark of Forbes WomensMedia writes that when men move into female dominated occupations such as nursing, the overall pay of that occupation and level of tasks included in the job remit begins to improve. If appears that when men enter an occupation, its value goes up.

But, what’s going on in finance and business?

Gender Penalties Are Bigger in Business Jobs

Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard, found in her research that when it comes to explaining the majority of the residual gender pay gap, “what happens within each occupation is far more important than the occupations in which women wind up.”

Among high-earning occupations, Goldin found those grouped as “business” have the biggest gender pay “penalty” for “being a woman relative to a man of equal education and age, given hours and weeks of work” whereas “science” and “technology” occupations have the smallest ones.

Census Bureau data shows that women make up only 24% of “computer, engineering and science occupations” and earn 83% as much as men. Women make up 54% of “business and financial operations occupations” but earn only 75% as much as men.

Non-Linear Earnings Are Penalizing Women

“Quite simply the (residual) gap exists because hours of work in many occupations are worth more when given at particular moments and when the hours are more continuous,” writes Goldin.

In many occupations, earnings “have a nonlinear relationship with respect to hours” – for example, a 70 hour week is rewarded in well over double the earnings of a 35 hour week and working 9-11 am counts much more than working 9-11 pm.

It’s less a matter of whether women take time off work to have children or seek flexible hours. It’s whether they are disproportionately penalized for the time they are absent from the office or for working their hours outside of the standard work day.

“Some occupations have high penalties for even small amounts of time out of the labor force and have nonlinear earnings with respect to hours worked,” Goldin writes, and then the gender pay gap is bigger. “Other occupations, however, have small penalties for time out and almost linear earnings with respect to hours worked.”

In previous research, Goldin and Katz quantified the occupational difference in pay penalty among Harvard 1990 graduates. They found that a similar 10 percent hiatus in employment 15 years after receiving their BA (18 months break) meant a decrease of earnings of 41% for MBAs, 29% for JDs or PhDs, and 15% for MDs.

Reduction in earnings as a result of time-off “was linear in lost experience” for MDs, but highly nonlinear for MBAs. “Any time off for MBAs is heavily penalized,” reports Goldin.

Remuneration penalties can result in women going to a different occupation, shifting down within the occupation hierarchy, or being out of work. The research found that when part-time work is largely available, women take off less time (eg pharmacists). Because it’s less available in business, women end up taking off more time even with higher penalties.

Goldin writes, “A flexible schedule often comes at a high price, particularly in the corporate, financial, and legal worlds.”

Closing the Gap

Goldin suggests that the last chapter to achieve gender equality involves “changing how jobs are structured and remunerated to enhance temporal flexibility.”

She found that certain contextual factors close the gender pay gap, such as when colleagues can more easily be substituted for each other and when information can easily and cheaply be relayed between colleagues.

Forbes contributor Clark advises to get the ball rolling on arranging temporal flexibility before you need it – anticipating and addressing the issues that need to be overcome.

How committed is your firm to making temporal flexibility work for women and for the company itself? What evidence do you see? Firms that are serious about gender equality will be proactive in making it work – and add up – for both.

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