Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is on staff at InHerSight where she writes about data and women's rights.
InHerSight polled more than 2,000 women to find out how knowledge of a gender pay gap at a company would affect their interest in working there.
If you knew there was a gender pay gap at a specific company, would you be less interested in working there?
Key survey findings
- 49 percent of women say that if they knew a company had a gender pay gap, they would absolutely be less interested in working for that company.
- 33 percent say they would probably be less interested in working there.
- 12 percent say this knowledge would not affect their interest.
- 4.6 percent say it would probably not affect their interest.
- Less than 2 percent say it would not affect their interest at all.
As early as spring 2019, US companies with at least 100 employees, and federal contractors with at least 50 employees and a contract of $50,000 or more, will have to report worker pay by sex, race, and ethnicity to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC).
“Daylight around this is important to equalizing pay,” says Cheryl Legare, employment law attorney in Decatur, GA. “Pay disparities are deep. The only way to fix it is to have this information gathered.”
There are 74.6 million women in the civilian workforce—that’s nearly 47 percent of the American workforce.
Read more:The 2019 Salary Satisfaction Report
The gender pay gap by the numbers
In the United States,
Women overall make 80 cents on a man’s dollar ( Pew Research )
African-American women earn 61 cents on a man’s dollar ( AAUW )
Hispanic or Latina women earn 53 cents on a man’s dollar ( AAUW )
And Asian women earn 85 cents on a man’s dollar ( AAUW )
There’s no single reason for the gender pay gap. Factors include lack of female representation in company leadership and in high-paying fields, occupational sorting, discouragement of women in STEM educational programs, the motherhood penalty, gender discrimination, and lack of pay transparency.
Methodology
Survey of more than 2,000 women in March 2019.
This article is part of InHerSight’s month-long coverage of equal pay. Timed with Equal Pay Day, the series looks at how the pay gap affects women of all backgrounds and in all industries.
