Analyzing Male vs. Female Executive Pay
The Washington Post ran an interesting article summarizing research attempting to analyze male vs. female executive pay. Among several conclusions, the researchers found that female executives are paid less than their male counterparts, and in particular, have less incentive pay. These results run counter to other studies that indicate executive pay is differentiated by a company’s size, industry, tenure and performance.
These analyses include a lot of noise for male vs. female executive pay over a long period of time. The researchers even highlight the difficulty of drawing a conclusion on executive pay gender differentials.
However, to us at NFPCC, the more interesting statistic worthy of attention is one that can’t be refuted:
Out of the 40,000+ top executives analyzed over a 13-year period (1992-2005), only 1,300 (3.2%) were women. Not to take away the researchers’ hard work, but this statistic seems to be the pressing issue to bring to light and work toward a different day in the boardroom.
