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Why Men Make More – Another Side

Written by Bernie

Bernie Frazier, SPHR is the Founder and President of CAREERCompass, LLC, a speaking and career coaching firm in St. Louis, MO. She also spent almost 25 years recruiting talent to six organizations across four industries and led the talent acquisition function for four of those organizations, including one global team.

Almost every year we hear a report about the wage gap between men and women.  And, every year it says the same thing – men make more than women.  As late as last year, the reports were all saying that women, on average, make 79.6% of the wage that men make.  If you lump all occupations together and then do the comparison, this is most likely true.  However, according to Cornell economists, Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, there’s a lot more to this story than the headline would tell you:

  • Blue collar jobs: There’s still a larger concentration of women who work in lower-paying industries and occupations than men.  Women are more likely to be concentrated in jobs like cashiers, clerks, healthcare aides, receptionists and food service workers ($8.00 – $15.00 per hour) which drags down women’s average wages.  Whereas men are more heavily concentrated in higher paying jobs like construction worker, mechanic and factory worker ($15.00 – $30.00 per hour).
  • White collar jobs: Overall, men still tend to have slightly more relevant and years of experience than women which causes a lower wage for women.  One other factor which could be a reason why women’s pay is less is what is commonly known as the “motherhood wage penalty.”  Regardless of the great strides women have made when it comes to equality, they still bear the biggest responsibility for raising children.  As a result, it causes the careers of women to be disrupted far more often than men.  This often has a negative effect on advancement opportunities and rising incomes.

Slide1According to Blau and Kahn, if you remove these factors, the ratio of women’s pay to men’s rises to almost 92 percent from 79.6%.  This is indeed good news, but there’s still an 8-percentage-point gap which needs to be explained.  Here’s my two cents:

Having worked in corporate recruiting for a long time, I saw one thing happen consistently which often causes men to make more than women in the same job – men were more likely to negotiate for higher pay.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to job offers, I was always much more likely to have a man ask for more than a woman.  Most of the time they would receive it.  I have offered jobs at $50,000 where the man ended up getting $55,000 and the woman ended up getting $50,000.  I have offered $100,000 jobs where the man ended up getting $110,000 plus an extra week’s vacation and the women ended up getting $100,000.

This wasn’t a matter of discrimination, it was a matter of negotiation.  And, negotiation knows no gender, color or age.  It only knows skills, experience, education, and the confidence and ability to ask for more.  I once managed the job offer negotiations for a black female where the company didn’t do home buyouts for out-of-town external hires at her level, but she stood her ground and made her case strong enough that, after the request landed on the CEO’s desk, the company bought her home!

So ladies, before the times comes for you to engage in a job offer discussion with an employer, it’s important that you understand your value in the marketplace based on what you have to offer, and develop the confidence to ask for more.  If you don’t, you may end up only making 92% of what the man next to you makes!

Until next time….