3 Causes Of The Gender Pay Gap
Every business needs to investigate if they have a gender pay gap by doing a thorough analysis of both their hiring practices and wages. Beyond determining if a problem exists, it is important to identify why the problem occurs and learn how to fix issues.
Issues When Promoting Openings
The people in your company that are responsible for promoting openings at job fairs or who are the ones doing on-the-spot interviews should be trained better to avoid poor practices. For example, at a job fair, are there differences between how men and women are treated when they inquire about your openings? This can be subtle, such as your representative being more engaging with potential male applicants and standoffish when a woman approaches the table. Some companies may do on-the-spot interviews, but there can be differences in who receives an immediate interview among similarly qualified people.
Biased Hiring
In theory, similarly qualified applicants should be hired at similar rates regardless of gender, but this is not always the case. You should look at your hiring practices at all levels, whether they are entry-level jobs or high-level executive positions. One issue is that women are often hired at higher rates for entry-level positions, even when their background makes them overqualified for the position. Over-hiring women at entry-level positions can automatically lead to a significant pay gap. At the other extreme within your business may be the under-hiring of women in higher-level positions. Some problems you should investigate can go beyond hiring discrimination. Do a higher number of women decline an offer from your company or retract their application after the interview? If so, you should question whether there are poor interview practices occurring.
Unfair Promotions
Lack of promotions for women or creating unreasonable barriers for women to obtain a promotion can also contribute to a pay gap. Again, these issues can be found at all levels within your organization. Ideally, employees with similar records within the business and similar qualifications should have the opportunity to advance at the same rate. Some issues that can affect promotions include biases in who is asked to take on more work or who has better opportunities within the business. For example, if a male employee is asked to work with better, high-paying clients, whereas female employees are not, this easily makes the male employee look better when it is time for a promotion. Sometimes unreasonable demands might be made of female employees, such as frequently staying late or working overtime without additional pay, but their male counterpart is not being asked to make such sacrifices.
If you determine a pay gap exists, fixing pay issues only resolves part of the problem. You need to dig deeper into your company's practices to find where problems truly exist. Use a gender pay gap software to help you learn more.