Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-29-2020
Abstract
That women are paid less than male colleagues is a stubborn fact in the U.S. workplace.
As of July, women earned 84 cents for every dollar a man earned. It is a discrepancy that has garnered significant attention from scholars, the media and sex discrimination lawsuits.
But this figure only tells part of the story regarding gender pay inequality.
As a professor of business management, I have long studied compensation and inequality and know that base pay is only one way that women are disadvantaged in the workplace. Recent research by myself and colleagues shines a light on how female employees – particularly in the tech industries – likewise lose out when it comes to other forms of pay that receive far less attention: equity-based awards.
These are stock grants, in which employees are offered shares in the firm as a form of pay, and stock option grants that offer the right to buy company stock at a preset price in the future. The value of both are tied to the employing organization’s market price.
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Publication Information
Klein, Felice. (2020). "The Gender Pay Gap That No One is Paying Attention to". The Conversation, .