The satirical website Clickhole, which parodies the web’s many sensationalist outlets, published a funny piece back in 2015 poking fun at the wage gap and excessive CEO pay. “Shocking: The Average Female CEO Only Makes 258 Times What Her Employees Make” the headline read.
“Wow. We knew that gender inequality in America was bad, but according to an alarming new study, it’s actually much worse than anyone could’ve thought,” the piece begins, tongue-in-cheek.
“A recently released report from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that female CEOs in America make a paltry 258 times what their average employee makes, while male CEOs make an average of 331 times more than theirs. That’s a pay gap of nearly 23 percent, which in dollar value—per median salary of U.S. CEOs—translates to an average disparity of $2.57 million, or enough to buy approximately 12 Aston Martins.”
A hilarious story for sure, but as it turns out, at the top of the corporate world, while vastly outnumbered by men, women are now out-earning the opposite sex. The fact that men dominate top corporate positions has often been a statistic I’ve heard accompanied in argument alongside the long-debunked “women only earn 77 cents on a man’s dollar” statistic.
Now, according to a report earlier this year in Forbes Magazine,
Comparing median compensation packages of S&P 500 leaders who held the job for a year, 21 female CEOs received a median of $13.8 million compared to the $11.6 million median earned by the 382 male CEOs last year. This isn’t new—women CEOs have made more than men in six of the past seven years. And three of the 10 highest paid executives are women.
Ironically, the prominence of the wage gap narrative might be benefiting women CEOs. The Wall Street Journal quotes Robin Ferracone, the head of a company that advises board compensation committees, “Boards don’t want to shortchange their female CEO in today’s environment, when pay equality is such an issue.” They “err on the side of being generous.”
As for why there are more male CEOs in the first place? Different average personal preferences between the genders (or in simpler terms, “biology”). It’s an extremely laborious process to make it to the top – and men have an additional biological advantage in that they will never have to take time out of the workforce to have children.
Unfair? Sure – but a reality that also ensures there will be CEOs for a next generation.
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