Skip to main content
  • Foundation
  • Executive network
  • CEO Circle
  • Enterprise Solutions
  • Linkage Logo
  • Store
  • Sign In
  • Account
    • My Account
    • Logout
    • Global
    • India
    • MENA
SHRM
About
Book a Speaker
Join Today
Renew
Rejoin Now
Renew
  • Membership
  • Certification
    Certification

    Smiling asian student studying in library with laptop books doing online research for coursework, making notes for essay homework assignment, online education e-learning concept
    Get Certified!

    Be recognized as an HR leader with your SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP credential.

    • How to Get Certified

      Demonstrate your ability to apply HR principles to real-life situations. No other HR certification compares.

      • How to Get Certified
      • Eligibility Criteria
      • Exam Details and Fees
      • SHRM-CP
      • SHRM-SCP
      • Which Certification is Best for Me
      • Certification FAQs
    • Prepare for the Exam

      Give yourself the best chance to pass your SHRM certification exam.

      • Exam Preparation
      • SHRM BASK
      • SHRM Learning System
      • Instructor-Led Learning
      • Self-Study
      • Study Aids & Add-ons
    • Recertification

      Recertify your SHRM Credentials before your end date!

      • Specialty Credentials
      • Qualifications
  • Topics & Tools
    Topics & Tools

    Stay up to date with workplace news and leverage our vast library of resources to streamline day-to-day HR tasks.

    The white house in washington, dc.
    Executive Order Impact Zone

    Do not abandon, but evaluate and evolve. It is about legal, equal opportunity for all.

    • News & Trends

      Follow breaking news and emerging workplace trends.

      Legal & Compliance

      Stay informed on workplace legal updates and their impacts.

      From the Workplace

      Explore diverse perspectives from your peers on today's workplaces.

      Flagships

      Get curated collections of podcasts, videos, articles, and more produced by SHRM.

    • HR Topics
      • AI in the Workplace
      • Civility at Work
      • Compensation & Benefits
      • Inclusion & Diversity
      • Talent Acquisition
      • Workplace Technology
      • Workplace Violence Prevention
      SEE ALL
      SHRM Research
    • Tools & Samples

      Access member resources and tools to streamline HR tasks.

      • Forms & Checklists
      • How-To Guides
      • Interactive Tools
      • Job Descriptions
      • Policies
      • Toolkits
      SEE ALL
      Ask an Advisor
  • Events & Education
    Events & Education

    SHRM25 in San Diego, June 29 - July 2, 2025
    Join us for SHRM25 in San Diego

    Register for the World’s Largest HR Conference being held on June 29 - July 2, 2025

    • Events
      • SHRM25
      • The AI+HI Project 2025
      • INCLUSION 2025
      • Talent 2026
      • Linkage Institute 2025
      SEE ALL
      Webinars
    • Educational Programs

      Designed and delivered by HR experts to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need to drive lasting change in the workplace.

      Specialty Credentials

      Demonstrate targeted competence and enhance credibility among peers and employers.

      Qualifications

      Gain a deeper understanding and develop critical skills.

    • Team Training & Development

      Customized training programs unique to your organization’s needs.

  • Business Solutions
  • Advocacy
    Advocacy

    Make your voice heard on public policy issues impacting the workplace.

    Advocacy
    SHRM's President & CEO testifies to Congress on "The State of American Education"
    • Policy Areas
      • Workforce Development
      • Workplace Inclusion
      • Workplace Flexibility & Leave
      • Workplace Governance
      • Workplace Health Care
      • Workplace Immigration
      State Affairs

      SHRM advances policy solutions in state legislatures nationwide.

      Global Policy

      SHRM is the go-to for global HR leaders and businesses on workplace matters.

    • Advocacy Team (A-Team)

      SHRM’s A-Team is a key member benefit, giving you the tools, insights, and opportunities to shape workplace policy and drive real impact.

      Take Action

      Urge lawmakers to support policies that create lasting, positive change.

      Advocacy & Legislative Resources

      Access SHRM’s curated policy materials and content.

    • SHRM-Led Coalitions
      • Generation Cares
      • The Section 127 Coalition
      • Learn More & Partner with SHRM Government Affairs
  • Community
    Community

    Woman raising hand in group
    Find a SHRM Chapter

    Easily find a local professional or student chapter in your area.

    • Chapters

      Find local connections from over 607 chapters and state councils and create your personalized HR network.

      SHRM Connect

      Post polls, get crowdsourced answers to your questions and network with other HR professionals online.

      SHRM Northern California

      Join SHRM members in the greater San Francisco Bay area for local events and networking.

    • Membership Councils

      Learn about SHRM's five regional councils and the Membership Advisory Council (MAC).

      • Membership Advisory Council
      • Regional Councils
    • Volunteers

      Learn about volunteer opportunities with SHRM.

      • Volunteer Leader Resource Center
Close
  • Membership
  • Certification
    back
    Certification
    Smiling asian student studying in library with laptop books doing online research for coursework, making notes for essay homework assignment, online education e-learning concept
    Get Certified!

    Be recognized as an HR leader with your SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP credential.

    • How to Get Certified

      Demonstrate your ability to apply HR principles to real-life situations. No other HR certification compares.

      • How to Get Certified
      • Eligibility Criteria
      • Exam Details and Fees
      • SHRM-CP
      • SHRM-SCP
      • Which Certification is Best for Me
      • Certification FAQs
    • Prepare for the Exam

      Give yourself the best chance to pass your SHRM certification exam.

      • Exam Preparation
      • SHRM BASK
      • SHRM Learning System
      • Instructor-Led Learning
      • Self-Study
      • Study Aids & Add-ons
    • Recertification

      Recertify your SHRM Credentials before your end date!

      • Specialty Credentials
      • Qualifications
  • Topics & Tools
    back
    Topics & Tools

    Stay up to date with workplace news and leverage our vast library of resources to streamline day-to-day HR tasks.

    The white house in washington, dc.
    Executive Order Impact Zone

    Do not abandon, but evaluate and evolve. It is about legal, equal opportunity for all.

    • News & Trends

      Follow breaking news and emerging workplace trends.

      Legal & Compliance

      Stay informed on workplace legal updates and their impacts.

      From the Workplace

      Explore diverse perspectives from your peers on today's workplaces.

      Flagships

      Get curated collections of podcasts, videos, articles, and more produced by SHRM.

    • HR Topics
      • AI in the Workplace
      • Civility at Work
      • Compensation & Benefits
      • Inclusion & Diversity
      • Talent Acquisition
      • Workplace Technology
      • Workplace Violence Prevention
      SEE ALL
      SHRM Research
    • Tools & Samples

      Access member resources and tools to streamline HR tasks.

      • Forms & Checklists
      • How-To Guides
      • Interactive Tools
      • Job Descriptions
      • Policies
      • Toolkits
      SEE ALL
      Ask an Advisor
  • Events & Education
    back
    Events & Education
    SHRM25 in San Diego, June 29 - July 2, 2025
    Join us for SHRM25 in San Diego

    Register for the World’s Largest HR Conference being held on June 29 - July 2, 2025

    • Events
      • SHRM25
      • The AI+HI Project 2025
      • INCLUSION 2025
      • Talent 2026
      • Linkage Institute 2025
      SEE ALL
      Webinars
    • Educational Programs

      Designed and delivered by HR experts to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need to drive lasting change in the workplace.

      Specialty Credentials

      Demonstrate targeted competence and enhance credibility among peers and employers.

      Qualifications

      Gain a deeper understanding and develop critical skills.

    • Team Training & Development

      Customized training programs unique to your organization’s needs.

  • Business Solutions
  • Advocacy
    back
    Advocacy

    Make your voice heard on public policy issues impacting the workplace.

    Advocacy
    SHRM's President & CEO testifies to Congress on "The State of American Education"
    • Policy Areas
      • Workforce Development
      • Workplace Inclusion
      • Workplace Flexibility & Leave
      • Workplace Governance
      • Workplace Health Care
      • Workplace Immigration
      State Affairs

      SHRM advances policy solutions in state legislatures nationwide.

      Global Policy

      SHRM is the go-to for global HR leaders and businesses on workplace matters.

    • Advocacy Team (A-Team)

      SHRM’s A-Team is a key member benefit, giving you the tools, insights, and opportunities to shape workplace policy and drive real impact.

      Take Action

      Urge lawmakers to support policies that create lasting, positive change.

      Advocacy & Legislative Resources

      Access SHRM’s curated policy materials and content.

    • SHRM-Led Coalitions
      • Generation Cares
      • The Section 127 Coalition
      • Learn More & Partner with SHRM Government Affairs
  • Community
    back
    Community
    Woman raising hand in group
    Find a SHRM Chapter

    Easily find a local professional or student chapter in your area.

    • Chapters

      Find local connections from over 607 chapters and state councils and create your personalized HR network.

      SHRM Connect

      Post polls, get crowdsourced answers to your questions and network with other HR professionals online.

      SHRM Northern California

      Join SHRM members in the greater San Francisco Bay area for local events and networking.

    • Membership Councils

      Learn about SHRM's five regional councils and the Membership Advisory Council (MAC).

      • Membership Advisory Council
      • Regional Councils
    • Volunteers

      Learn about volunteer opportunities with SHRM.

      • Volunteer Leader Resource Center
Join Today
Renew
Rejoin Now
Renew
  • Store
    • Global
    • India
    • MENA
  • About
  • Book a Speaker
  • Foundation
  • Executive network
  • CEO Circle
  • Enterprise Solutions
  • Linkage Logo
SHRM
Sign In
  • Account
    • My Account
    • Logout
Close

  1. Topics & Tools
  2. Workplace News & Trends
  3. Compensation & Benefits
  4. Gender Pay Gap Pegged to Lack of Promotions
Share
  • Linked In
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus convallis sem tellus, vitae egestas felis vestibule ut.


Error message details.

Copy button
Reuse Permissions

Request permission to republish or redistribute SHRM content and materials.


Learn More
News

Gender Pay Gap Pegged to Lack of Promotions

20% of women believe gender has contributed to a missed promotion or raise

December 12, 2016 | Stephen Miller, CEBS

A woman is standing in front of a group of people in an office.


The gender pay gap in the U.S. is real but more complicated than is often reported, new research indicates. Lack of career advancement tends to keep women in lower-paying nonmanagement roles, and spending fewer hours on the job is a contributing factor.

A study by PayScale Inc., which provides compensation resources and software, looked at uncontrolled gender pay data (comparing working women and men generally) and found that, on average, women across the U.S. earn 76 cents on the dollar compared with men in 2016, a huge 23.7 percent difference, although down a bit from last year's 25.6 percent gap.

But controlled data (comparing men and women with similar job type, education and experience, holding similar positions) show that women earn 98 cents on the dollar compared with men, or just 2.4 percent less (down from last year's 2.7 percent gap), according to the firm's 2016 Inside the Gender Pay Gap report, released on Dec. 6.

The pay findings in the report were collected from 1.8 million U.S. employees who completed the PayScale Employee Compensation Survey through October 2016. Employee attitudes about pay equity noted in the report were based on based on a second survey of 80,000 workers, conducted over the past few months.

The Career Advancement Gap

Why such a huge difference between the controlled and uncontrolled numbers? Jobs and industries with higher pay are often disproportionately filled with male workers. But even within a given industry, the gender pay gap increases as employees move up the corporate ladder, the researchers found.

"Women are significantly less likely than men to hold management roles," said Lydia Frank, vice president of content strategy at Seattle-based PayScale. "At the start of their careers, men and women tend to work at similar job levels, most often entering the workforce at the individual contributor level. Over the course of their career, both men and women move into manager- or supervisor-level roles, and eventually to director- and executive-level roles. But men appear to move into these roles at significantly higher rates than women."

For instance, she noted, the report shows that:

  • Men are 85 percent more likely than women to be vice presidents or C-suite executives by midcareer.

  • Men are 171 percent more likely to hold those positions late in their career.

Conversely, by the time they reach age 60, more than 60 percent of women are still working in individual contributor roles, but less than 45 percent of men are still in this type of job.

Bias—both overt and unconscious—is still seen as a factor holding women back, many female respondents believe. The researchers found that nearly 20 percent of all women and 36 percent of those with MBA degrees felt their gender was a factor in missing a raise or promotion.

The survey also examined whether men and women thought their employers were taking steps to address the gender pay gap and making opportunities for promotion more equitable. Overall, about 17 percent of men said their employer was proactively addressing pay inequity, while roughly 10 percent of women felt the same.

Both women and men who believed their employer was not addressing gender inequity reported being less satisfied at work and more likely to seek a new job.

"Equitable pay and promotion practices are not just good for employees, they can also have a serious impact on talent retention for both genders," said Frank. "Employees want to work for an organization that shares their same values."

[SHRM members-only policies: Flexible Schedules: Alternative Work Schedule Policy and Procedure]

The Working Hours Gap

A polling report released by Gallup at the end of October, Women in America: Work and Life Well-Lived, focused on another factor contributing to the gender pay gap: the number of hours worked. In the U.S. workforce, 47 percent of men say they work more than 40 hours per week, while 30 percent of women say the same.

Gallup, which interviewed over 500 U.S. adults earlier this year, found similar disparities among hourly and salaried positions:

  • In salaried roles, 28 percent of men say they work 50 to 59 hours per week, compared with 16 percent of women who say the same. While the disparity doesn't directly affect pay among workers who are exempt from receiving overtime pay, more hours worked can be a factor considered in promotions and career advancement.

  • In hourly roles, 10 percent of men say they work 60 or more hours per week, compared with 3 percent of women.

"While men say they work more hours at their jobs than women do, these findings do not suggest that men work harder than women," noted Jane Miller, chief operating officer at Gallup, and Amy Adkins, a Gallup writer and editor, in an analysis posted on Gallup's website.

"The much more likely scenario is that women often work two jobs: as mothers and as full-time or part-time employees," Miller and Adkins wrote. "Working mothers tend to have fewer hours in their day to give to their jobs. They have children to pick up from school and take to baseball or dance practice, homework to supervise, laundry to fold, and a family to feed."

They added, "While there are certainly working fathers who participate in these stereotypically maternal activities, the reality is that women are still the primary caregivers with the majority of oversight for their homes and families."

Similarly, PayScale found that the highest male/female pay gap occurred when comparing married working mothers with married working fathers.

Addressing Gender Inequality

Employers can help to alleviate an underlying cause of gender pay inequity by addressing family caregiving burdens on women, in part, through flexible work policies.

In addition, an internal career mobility program can help employees visualize their career growth within the company and to develop the skills needed to advance to higher-level positions.

On Dec. 7, more than two dozen chief executives of major U.S. companies launched a Paradigm for Parity Coalition to help businesses achieve gender equality in upper-level management. The campaign calls for companies to adopt a road map that includes establishing measurable targets for the representation of women at every level, training employees in spotting hidden biases, and identifying women who have shown management potential and providing them with career sponsors.

"We support this initiative not only because it's the right thing to do but because we know we can't reach our full potential as a business unless we recruit, hire, develop and retain women leaders as part of a diverse leadership team that represents the markets we serve," said Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., on the coalition's website.

Related SHRM Article:

HR Key in Helping Employers Achieve Gender Equality, HR Magazine, November 2016

Was this article useful? SHRM offers thousands of tools, templates and other exclusive member benefits, including compliance updates, sample policies, HR expert advice, education discounts, a growing online member community and much more. Join/Renew Now and let SHRM help you work smarter.

Compensation
Global Mindset
Inclusion and Diversity
Pay Equity

Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace

​An organization run by AI is not a futuristic concept. Such technology is already a part of many workplaces and will continue to shape the labor market and HR. Here's how employers and employees can successfully manage generative AI and other AI-powered systems.



Related Content

Kelly Dobbs Bunting speaks onstage at SHRM24
(opens in a new tab)
News
Why AI+HI Is Essential to Compliance

HR must always include human intelligence and oversight of AI in decision-making in hiring and firing, a legal expert said at SHRM24. She added that HR can ensure compliance by meeting the strictest AI standards, which will be in Colorado’s upcoming AI law.

(opens in a new tab)
News
A 4-Day Workweek? AI-Fueled Efficiencies Could Make It Happen

The proliferation of artificial intelligence in the workplace, and the ensuing expected increase in productivity and efficiency, could help usher in the four-day workweek, some experts predict.

(opens in a new tab)
News
How One Company Uses Digital Tools to Boost Employee Well-Being

Learn how Marsh McLennan successfully boosts staff well-being with digital tools, improving productivity and work satisfaction for more than 20,000 employees.

HR Daily Newsletter

Stay up to date with the latest HR news, trends, and expert advice each business day.

Success title

Success caption

Manage Subscriptions
  • About SHRM
  • Careers at SHRM
  • Press Room
  • Contact SHRM
  • Book a SHRM Executive Speaker
  • Advertise with Us
  • Partner with Us
  • Copyright & Permissions
  • Post a Job
  • Find an HR Job
Follow Us
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • SHRM Newsletters
  • Ask An Advisor

© 2025 SHRM. All Rights Reserved

SHRM provides content as a service to its readers and members. It does not offer legal advice, and cannot guarantee the accuracy or suitability of its content for a particular purpose. Disclaimer


  1. Privacy Policy

  2. Terms of Use

  3. Accessibility

Join SHRM for Exclusive Access to Member Content

SHRM Members enjoy unlimited access to articles and exclusive member resources.

Already a member?
Free Article
Limit Reached

Get unlimited access to articles and member-exclusive resources.

You've reached the limit of 1 free article this month. Join to access unlimited articles and member-only resources.

Already a member?
Free Article
Exclusive Executive-Level Content

This content is for the SHRM Executive Network and Executive Content Subscription members only.

You've reached the limit of 1 free article this month. Join the Executive Network and enjoy unlimited content.

Already a member?
Free Article
Exclusive Executive-Level Content

This content is for the SHRM Executive Network and Executive Content Subscription members only.

You've reached the limit of 1 free article this month. Join and enjoy unlimited access to SHRM Executive Network Content.

Already a member?
Unlock Your Career with SHRM Membership

Please enjoy this free resource! Join SHRM for unlimited access to exclusive articles and tools.

Already a member?

Your membership is almost expired! Renew today for unlimited access to member content.

Renew now

Your membership has expired. Renew today for unlimited access to member content.

Renew Now

Your Executive Network membership is nearing its expiration. Renew now to maintain access.

Renew Now

Your membership has expired. Renew your Executive Network benefits today.

Renew Now