Gen Z doesn’t shy away from equity issues when entering the workforce.
Women, it seems, lose out on compensation even before their first professional job, according to a new report from Handshake, a career application aimed at Gen Z. On average, those surveyed in the Class of 2023 reported that they consider $82,000 to be high, achievable . starting salary.
But Gen Z women expect an average salary of $6,000 less compared to men, Handshake’s analysis found. This points to a clear “expectation gap” for women that has formed even before entering the workplace. The gap is consistent for women across all racial and ethnic groups.
“It’s a social issue, and I think we’re going back to K through 12 education,” said Christine Cruzvergara, head of education strategy at Handshake. fortune.
It also dates back to the gender pay gap of the boomers; in 1980, women’s wages represented 64% of men, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the gap has narrowed somewhat since then, it stuck in the 2000s around 80%.
The current gender pay gap — women earn $0.82 cents for every dollar men make by 2022 — stems from a variety of issues. Women, on average, still suffer the “motherhood penalty” when they have children, losing time out of the workforce and career advancement opportunities. In addition, women still face obstacles in the perception of appropriate work. Women, for example, make up only 27% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries that typically pay higher.
Previous research has also shown that women often do not negotiate salary as well as men when applying for a job or will not even look for a job if they feel they are not qualified.
Conscious and unconscious biases and perceptions of the value of women’s work continue to contribute to the pay gap, which has remained steady for more than 15 years. Women have slightly lower expectations of what they want and what they want to do in certain fields compared to their male counterparts—and that’s evident from the start.
“As a society, we still need to consider how to raise female students, or female students, and how we give them confidence in their own worth, confidence in what they bring to the table – whether it’s professional or academic or frankly , in any other realm,” said Cruzvergara, who helps lead career services at Wellesley and George Mason University.
Transparency pays off can help close the gender pay gap
To reverse this troubling trend, Cruzvergara says today’s college students need to understand not only the disparities that exist, but seek information about normal salary ranges for specific jobs and industries. Pay transparency regulations, he added, could help. Currently, Colorado, California, Rhode Island, and Washington, as well as New York City, all have some type of pay transparency mandate on the books. New York is set to implement statewide requirements in September, while Massachusetts and South Carolina are awaiting legislation.
The changes taking place in terms of pay transparency could be one of the most concrete steps to reduce the expectation gap, Cruzvergara said. “As pay transparency becomes a bigger thing for more classes in the future, hopefully that gap will narrow because people now have the data and information in front of them to set their expectations,” he said.
Employers have responded. About 27% of organizations include salary ranges in job listings regardless of legal requirements, according to Payscale’s 2023 Compensation Best Practices Report. Overall, about 45% of employers include a salary range in job postings. On Handshake, there are 1.3x more full-time jobs with salary data on Handshake as of 2020.
“This class is honestly one of the first to graduate with transparency paying more than anything we’ve ever experienced or seen,” Cruzvergara added, saying he’s eager to see how this new regulation changes perceptions.
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