Dive Brief:
- A new study from Glassdoor examined the gender pay gap in an attempt to "demystify" the nature of the gap. It found that not only do men earn more than women on average in every country examined – but even when the data is controlled for job title, location, age, education and years of experience, an "unexplainable" gap still remains.
- For all professionals, the unexplainable gap averages at about 5%. But some professions have higher "unexplainable" gaps, according to the Washington Post. For example, computer programmers, chefs and dentists have gaps as high as 28% unexplained.
- The study looks at over 500,000 salary reports from workers who self-reported on the site. On top of self-reporting, some professions have rather small sample sizes, meaning the report may not completely reflect the nature of the overall job market, but it does provide an interesting overview.
Dive Insight:
While 5% may seem small, it's nothing to sneeze at. Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor's chief economist, told the Post he was "surprised" by the size of the unexplained gap, saying he thought that when they controlled for variables that it would be much smaller.
"There’s a risk that in this paper showing a 5% pay gap, many people might think that’s minimizing the problem," he told the Post. "But I'm actually surprised it’s not smaller than 5%. That's pretty significant, and a pretty decent chunk of change over a lifetime."
Notably, the biggest gaps persist in areas where people tend to get paid the most overall, particularly the C-suite.
A list of the top 15 occupations with high "unexplained" gaps:
- Computer Programmer
- Chef
- Dentist
- C-Suite
- Psychology
- Pharmacist
- CAD Designer
- Physician
- Optician
- Pilot
- Game artist
- Driver
- Information Security
- Retail Representative
- Medical Technician
