BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Understanding The Gender Pay Gap: A Framework That May Help

Forbes Coaches Council

Women's Leadership Scholar & Karen Haight Huntsman Endowed Professor of Leadership, Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University 

The gender pay gap is a persistent concern in the United States, where women make about 82% of what men make for comparable work. The numbers in some states are more extreme (like in Utah where it is 70%), and they range widely from country to country worldwide. Although the existence of the pay gap is indisputable, many still try to discount it or attribute the entire gap to “women’s choices.” And, I still hear people say that the gender pay gap is a myth and does not exist. In reality, the pay gap does exist but is deeply complicated and has a host of contributing factors. Although “equal pay for equal work” sounds fairly simple, it is not.

Since this topic has been written about extensively in various settings by individuals ranging from academics to economists to consultants, there is no need to revisit data or statistics here. Instead, I want to share a fluid framework that I have used the last few years to guide my conversations in this area. When discussing the origins of the wage gap, it is important to consider an interconnected web of related factors that I group into three categories: individual, organizational and societal. Yet, within all these categories, there are some underlying elements that should not be forgotten. These include the impact of unconscious bias, which is always present in any workplace decision, as well as discrimination, plain-old sexism and the differences that exist by race, ethnicity, religion, class, sexual orientation, ability and other demographic groupings. Hence, keep these in mind when considering additional factors related to the pay gap in each of the three categories below.

Individual Factors

When looking at why an individual woman experiences a wage gap, we must consider the motherhood penalty, unpaid care work, career breaks, hours worked per week, occupational tenure and educational attainment, which can include choice of programs or majors, participation and completion rates and the level of education obtained. Individual factors also include both negotiation skills and the negotiation expectations of others in decision making roles. Of course, role socialization, communication style constraints, confidence levels and the psychological glass ceiling are also elements that cannot be ignored and often flow over into the organizational and societal categories as well.

Organizational Factors

Organizational factors can include a host of issues such as the widespread existence of masculine organizational cultures, organizational ambivalence and unequal standards, occupational segregation, differences in types of work and job assignments and the policies and practices companies use for recruiting, hiring, retention and promotion. This includes practices that have been shown to disadvantage women (e.g., asking questions about an individual’s previous salary and company policies discouraging pay transparency). The gender pay gap has also been linked to distinct industries and sectors, workplace harassment, cultures that devalue communal practices, workplace expectations based on the assumption that unpaid care work support is available, women’s exclusion from informal networks and lower levels of mentoring, sponsorship and other support women receive compared to men in many organizations around the globe.

Societal Factors

The third category I use to lump some of the gender pay gap influences together is the factors that exist at the societal level. These can include cultural constraints on women’s own choices, gender stereotypes, lack of awareness, gender unconsciousness and scrutiny and general socialization. In some places, the prevalence of part-time workers and occupational segregation are serious gap factors. Religious culture, leadership perceptions, cultural assumptions and mechanisms that control women’s voices are also factors that should be considered in any serious discussion of the topic. Interestingly, I recently had a CEO tell me that he does not let societal influences impact his workplace policies, practices or decisions. Of course, I immediately focused on teaching him that one cannot truly separate societal influences from individual and organizational decisions.

Although I’ve built this framework and collected these factors from many sources and my own research, a gender-based leadership barriers model created by Amy B. Diehl and Leanne M. Dzubinski has provided some of the language I use for pay gap conversations.

While these divisions are not perfect and the influence of factors can flow throughout all three categories, this framework has helped me in my discussions with individuals, companies, and policymakers. At the very least, this model highlights the complexity of the issue. Of course, each of these contributing factors is multi-faceted, and exploring potential solutions to this monster of a problem is beyond the scope of this article. Yet, strategies and initiatives are needed in both the public and private domains in each of the categories (individual, organizational and societal) to tackle the gender pay gap and move toward lasting change.

Whatever our current level of expertise on the pay gap, we can all learn more about this complex issue by reading research-based reports from organizations like the Economic Policy Institute, Center for American Progress, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, World Bank, American Association of University Women and Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. This issue does not just affect women; it also impacts families, businesses, nonprofits, communities, schools, universities and even states, regions and nations. In other words, the gender pay gap affects everyone!


Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?


Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website