If you’re a woman who has suspected that, as you age, you will become increasingly less likely to be paid as much as your male counterparts—yeah, it’s true.
A workforce analytics firm called Visier shared a new report created from their database of 165,000 U.S.-based employees from 31 companies. They discovered that, around age 32, the wage gap widens significantly between men and women. The Wall Street Journal reports:
At that age, women earn approximately 90% of their male counterparts’ incomes, a share that declines to 82% by age 40. During that same period, men are more likely to be promoted into managerial roles.
On average, managers earn twice as much as non-managers, so the wage gap is solidified by the fact that women aren’t promoted nearly as often as men. Visier attributes this to women leaving the workforce for maternity leave as well as discrimination—and there’s an intersection between the two, of course, as the fear that the woman you hired will eventually have a baby is tantamount to discrimination. The firm recommends using blind screening for promotional decisions and pushing for equal-paid parental leave for both men and women as a way to close the gap.
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