It’s all about being average. In a perfect world 80% of us all fall within (1 standard deviation)…for just about everything.
Falling outside the curve for many, at least from a compensation perspective for many lower level jobs, is very rare. But, in fact, in the real world of corporate executives the curve is much flatter and average really doesn’t exist – except perhaps in how employers are compensating women.
Glass Floors and Ceilings: Why Closing the Median Wage Gap Isn’t Fair by Daniel J. Sandberg offers in summary that as the % of women at executive levels rises, employers are more likely to compensate them in a compressed range around the median of their peer group.
This “practice of Gender-Based Compensation Management (GBCM) artificially addresses the gender pay gap by increasing the median woman’s compensation without providing women equal access to the full range of compensation.”
Daniel J. Sandberg
The results are apparently less satisfying and increasingly obvious, leading to more lawsuits. The link above also includes the full study – well worth the read.
