Lower median salaries among female executives
According to the latest annual compensation barometer conducted by Apec among 130,000 executives in the private sector*, female executives have lower median salaries than men (median salary: 50% of executives earn less, 50% of executives earn more). They earn 48,000 euros gross per year (fixed + variable) compared to 55,000 euros for men. That is always a difference of 15%. A shamefully stable figure for 10 years.
Source: Apec compensation barometer 2023*
Worse, this gap increases with age : from 6% among those under 35, it reaches 19% among those aged 55 and over.
“A wage gap that can be partly explained by profile differences between men and women. Women executives, who are relatively younger than men, are for example under-represented in positions of hierarchical responsibility”underline the authors of the study.
Source: Apec compensation barometer 2023*
With equal skills, a female executive earns 7% less than a male
A profile question? Not so sure: with an equivalent profile and position, the wage gap between women and men is still 7% (to the detriment of the former, of course). So this inequality persists and increases with age: 3% for executives under 35, 10% for those over 55.
Blame the employers
Whose fault is it ? “Discriminatory behavior, conscious or unconscious, on the part of employers”, underline the authors of the study. For once, we are not blaming women for this unjustified difference in salary.
It is indeed not uncommon to read (including on Cadremploi) that women ask for lower starting salaries, that they do not dare to ask for increases… in short, implicitly, that they are victims of the principle: who asks for nothing, has nothing.
In reality, women deserve that the Labor Code providing for equal pay applies. And so that recruiters stop, consciously or unconsciously, to discriminate against them on the subject.
Blame the glass ceiling
Wage inequalities are also widening indirectly because of the glass ceiling which prevents women from accessing better paid positions of responsibility. The Rixain law imposing quotas for women in the governing bodies should (if one day it is respected and we see that on this subject of wage inequalities, this is only rarely the case) make it possible to make up for part of this delay in the years to come. But how long will we have to wait for equal pay, yet enshrined in the Labor Code, to finally be applied?
More augmented men but it is progressing among women
Unsurprisingly, the Apec compensation study also points to the fact that in 2022, more men have been raised (59%) than women (54%). If we still see the glass half full: the share of female executives who have benefited from a raise has “significantly increased” underlines the study: + 10% in 2022. In the same way as men: + 11% .
Source: Apec compensation barometer 2023*
In summary, more women executives have been increased but the level of salary increases for women still does not fill the gap between “them” and “them”. Remember that it is therefore always 15% and 7% with equivalent profile and responsibilities.
Definitely the hangover on wage inequalities persists!
* 2023 Barometer of executive compensation, Much more frequent increases but no effect on reducing gender pay inequalities, Apec 2023.
To calculate a pay gap “for equivalent profile and position” or “all other things being equal”, Apec uses statistical modeling that breaks down the pay into explanatory factors. The model estimates for each woman (respectively for each man) in the sample, the “theoretical” salary that she (he) would have received had she been a man (a woman), according to the characteristics of the job held ( sector, region, company size, function, management, etc.) and of the individual (age, diploma, etc.). The overall gap with equal characteristics is then deducted from these theoretical wage gaps.