We’ve talked before about the gender pay gap and how it is a problem across many developing countries and most industries – especially tech fields (for example, female programmers get paid 30 percent less than their male counterparts). Obviously the gender pay gap is a real issue, and people get that, but when it comes down to it, many employees, both male and female, have little understanding of how pay is determined in their workplace. Glassdoor surveyed 8,254 working adults ages 18 and older in seven developed countries (The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland) and discovered this is true outside of the US as well. The main thing that the survey revealed is that a lot of people have no idea what fair market pay is for their position and how their salary stacks up to others in similar positions. For the most part, they believe that salary transparency is good for business, but given the lack of understanding most people have about how people are compensated in their company, it’s clear that many companies do not divulge this information to their employees.
Many also believe that they would have to switch companies in order to receive any meaningful raise or change in compensation. This could also be related to a lack of understanding of how their salary measures up at their current company compared to other places. If they don’t know what they are worth, they are more likely to assume they will get paid more elsewhere.
According to this survey, clarity around compensation is divided along gender lines. Globally, more employed men (59 percent) than employed women (51 percent) believe they have a good understanding of how people are compensated at all levels in their company. In the U.S. the divide is larger with 65 percent of employed men who believe they have a good understanding of compensation levels in their company, compared to 53 percent of employed women. The whole report can be found here.
