Women Doubt Progress On Pay, Promotions: Study Reveals Gender Gap in Perception

March marks Women’s History Month, a time when many companies focus on the positive contributions and hard work of their female employees. While many companies are making progress towards equal pay, representation and promotions, men and women share differing perceptions on how far they’ve come. 

A new study by HiBob, an HR/people management platform, found that roughly a third of women, 34%, believe that men are paid more than them for the same role. Yet, a large majority of men, 82%, said they believe they are paid equally to women at their company. Women do make less when it comes to promotions, as the study found that 38% of men received promotions with pay increases in 2023, compared to only 32% of women. 

In respect to balancing a career with family, nearly a quarter of women said they believe working mothers are promoted less. This is reflected by a large gap in leadership as two-thirds of women claim their company does not have balanced male/female leadership, according to the study. While over half of the men surveyed felt that their company had made strides towards developing female leaders — only 38% of women answered the same. 

In terms of benefits, both men and women are pushing for increased time off and improved parental leave. Surprisingly, the study found that men were much more likely to receive a benefits increase than women in 2023. Even when given parental leave benefits, only 60% of female employees agreed that their organization encouraged them to take the full offered time off, according to the study. 

Ronni Zehavi, co-founder and CEO of HiBob said, “It is the responsibility of companies and leaders to level the playing field and make sure promotion and pay parity are a large part of a company’s culture. Leaders must take a hard look at their companies and policies, and reflect on what they can do better, and then put that into action.”