Closing the Gender Gap on Pay and Advancement

Research shows that creating a culture of equality unlocks human potential and uncovers the key drivers of a workplace culture in which everyone can advance and thrive.

The report breaks new ground: We surveyed more than 22,000 working men and women with a university education in 34 countries to measure their perception of factors that contribute to the culture in which they work. Out of more than 200 personal and workplace factors - such as policies, behaviors and collective opinions of employees - we identified 40 that are statistically shown to influence advancement, including 14 that are most likely to affect change.

Grouping the factors into three categories, the report shows how leaders of businesses and organizations have the power to close the gender gap in career advancement and pay:

• Bold Leadership Having a diverse leadership team that sets, shares and measures equality targets openly.
• Comprehensive Action Instituting policies and practices that are family-friendly, support both genders and are bias-free in attracting and retaining people.
• An Empowering Environment Creating a culture that trusts employees, respects individuals and offers freedom to be creative and to train and work flexibly.

We found that when the 40 factors are most common, women are four times more likely to reach senior managers and director levels. If all organizations were to create the environments in which these factors are most common, the results could be astonishing:

• Globally, for every 100 male managers, there could be up to 84 female managers, compared with the current ratio of 100 to 34.
• Women's pay could increase by 51 percent, or up to an additional US $30,000 per woman each year. Globally, that equates to a lift in women's earnings of US $2.0 trillion.

Accelerating advancement and pay equality

Motiff Shop is committed to creating a workplace culture of equality. Read about our bold goals on the path to gender equality.