{"id":3937,"date":"2025-04-23T17:56:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T17:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3937"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:37:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:37:39","slug":"a-gender-pay-gap-solution-is-within-leaders-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/a-gender-pay-gap-solution-is-within-leaders-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gender Pay Gap Solution Is Within Leaders\u2019 Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Women working full-time, year-round are paid 84% of what men are paid on average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. What is the answer to closing the gender pay gap? The solution might not be simple but is within leaders\u2019 reach.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Carol Kulik<\/a> of the University of South Australia said that the answer is auditing the compensation system and monitoring disparities within it.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cData on the pay gaps that have just been released in Australia are company-wide, and what you really need to do is dig down and say, \u2018At what level do we start to see pay gaps?\u2019\u201d Kulik said. \u201cThat\u2019s so important, because when men and women come into an organization, the pay gap might be really small, but there could be at some critical stage in the future\u2014maybe it\u2019s at the point where they\u2019re getting promoted into that first layer of management where there was a bigger difference. \u201cYou have to know where the problem is in order for you to really address it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n

Role segregation is a significant aspect of the issue.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe know that one of the big problems leading to gender pay gaps is role segregation,\u201d Kulik said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a really important thing for organizations to look at: whether women are concentrated in roles that don’t pay very well, are there some barriers that are keeping them from getting into some of the high paid jobs?<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOne of the common examples that we use here in Australia is forklift operator\u2014it turns out they get paid pretty well,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd women rarely apply for those jobs, because many organizations will require that you already have a license before you\u2019re even considered for the role, but if the organization says, \u2018We\u2019ll provide some training to help you to get that license,\u2019 we get much more gender balance in applications.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd then we see a narrower gender pay gaps, because women now have access to roles that are higher paid\u2014so there\u2019s a lot of factors to consider.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Kulik\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n