With International Women’s Day in the offing, StepStone looked at some interesting data about women in management positions.
On average Belgian women get a 22% increase in wages when they get promoted to a management position, while men overall gain 20%. However, in absolute numbers (and gross pay), men still earn more globally & the benefit for women is only for entry level management positions.
Job board StepStone concluded this after an analysis of more than 14,000 datasets of Belgian men & women. We also see that no less than 67% of managers in the HR sector are female.
Larger percentage difference in wages for women who get promoted to a management position
Female employees who are promoted to team leaders or become responsible for a team in Belgium generally receive an additional 22% salary. When a Belgian man takes the same career leap, he ‘only’ gets 20% more wages. This is the result from the analysis of StepStone data of more than 14,000 Belgian men and women.
The situation is different for the middle and highest management levels. There, the difference between men and women increases to at least twice as much for men, instead of a slight benefit for women. The difference is especially remarkable for the very highest positions, although of course various factors, such as industry and the level of experience, are decisive for each individual case.
In absolute numbers, men still earn more on average. The average 20% for men therefore outweighs the 22% for women.
The sectors where more women than men are managers
Additionally, we also looked at different sectors and the gender of the various managers. In these six industries more than half of the management staff are female:
Remarkably two out of three managers in Human Resources are female. We also clearly see more women in management roles in the social and scientific sectors.
Methodology
Management positions were divided into the three general levels: the bottom (leading a team); middle (head of a department) and highest (senior management, management).
The difference in wage and salary in promotion is not only linked to the difference in gender, but is also influenced by a multitude of other external factors, including the industry and the experience level of the employee. The above analysis therefore offers only a general picture, with gender as a focus point.