Demystifying the Gender Pay Gap Evidence from Glassdoor Salary Data
Research Report | March 2016 Demystifying the Gender Pay Gap Evidence From Glassdoor Salary Data By Dr. Andrew Chamberlain Chief Economist, Glassdoor Executive Summary This study examines the gender pay gap using a unique data set of hundreds of thousands of Glassdoor salaries shared anonymously by employees online. Unlike most studies, we include detailed statistical controls for specific job titles and company names. We estimate the gender pay gap in five countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and France. • MAIN TAKEAWAY: The gender pay gap is real, both in the U.S. and around the world. Men earn more than women on average in every country we examined, both before and after adding statistical controls for personal characteristics, job title, company, industry and other factors designed to make an apples-to-apples comparison between workers. • HOW LARGE IS THE GAP? Based on more than 505,000 salaries shared by full-time U.S. employees on Glassdoor, men earn 24.1 percent higher base pay than women on average. In other words, women earn about 76 cents per dollar men earn. This is consistent with official sources that show women earn on average 75 to 80 cents per dollar earned by men.1 However, comparing workers with similar age, education and years of experience shrinks that gap to 19.2 percent. Further, comparing workers with the same job title, employer and location, the gender pay gap in the U.S. falls to 5.4 percent (94.6 cents per dollar). • We find a similar pattern in all five countries we examined: a large overall or “unadjusted” gender pay gap, which shrinks to a smaller “adjusted” pay gap once statistical controls are added.
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