Pay Gap Reversal at Board Level: Women Directors Outearn Men!

A new gender gap has emerged.  While still a minority in corporate boardrooms, a new study shows that female directors earn more than their male counterparts.

In the recently published version of its Annual Director Pay Survey, which covers more than 25,000 directors at over 3,200 companies, The Corporate Library reports median total compensation for female corporate directors of $120,000.  That's about $15,000 higher than the median earnings for male directors, which is $104,375.

In a Business Week article about the study, Paul Hodgson, the senior research associate who authored the survey, shares his thoughts on the cause(s) of the earnings gap:

Hodgson theorizes that boards, eager to get female representation across the board, assign more women to multiple committees, earning them extra fees.  He also says the pay differential appears most among smaller companies, where good governance practices, which include concerns about getting diverse input on several committees, tend to be better.

Is there a lesson here?  Yes, and it is the enduring one about supply and demand and the impact they have upon pay.  There's no straighter path to higher earnings than becoming a scarce and highly sought after resource!

Comments

[jen_chan, MemberSpeed.com]

Yes! Kudos to those successful women! It actually reminds me of this line Anne Hathaway said in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada." I don't remember the exact words but it said something about powerful and tough women being too much but when men act the same way, it is perceived to be a good thing.