The
Wall Street Journal reported this week on the stock ownership pay gap between men and women in the U.S., citing a recent Rutgers study which found 24% of male employees hold company stock or options versus only 17% of female employees. More importantly, the average value of shares held by men was $104,902 versus $26,361 for women. The article notes that in addition to overall differences in representation which could lead to a “stock pay gap,” there is
evidence that female employees receive fewer equity grants then men even after adjusting for occupations and skillsets.
Given that equity ownership is a primary driver of wealth-building for employees, ensuring that pay equity analyses include specific reference to stock ownership is key. A recent study by pay equity firm Syndio found that only 25% of companies currently review equity compensation in their analysis while 44% plan to add this to their reviews in the future. Other findings of the study included:
- 98% of companies using Syndio’s software now analyze race, compared to only 50% in May of last year.
- 26% plan to analyze age in their next cycle.
- 61% of companies now budget specifically for pay equity mitigation, up from 46% last year.
- 70% of companies analyze pay equity annually, but 76% of those would like to analyze it more frequently (such as quarterly or every six months).
- 41% of companies now disclose to employees that they are conducting a pay equity analysis and 20% of those share high-level results with employees.
