5 Strategies to Close the Gender Pay Gap

Introduction

In 2024, women continue to earn 83 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make in the U.S. Women feel this disparity in every facet of their professional and personal lives, from career trajectories to their financial security in retirement.

At a larger scale globally, this gender pay gap results in billions of dollars in lost income for women. Closing thegap is more than a social imperative. It’s an economic necessity. This was the focus of SplashBI’s recent webinar, 5 Must-Have Strategies to Close the Gender Pay Gap With People Analytics. Experts from various industries gathered to share actionable insights. Hosted by SplashBI’s Christina Crowley, the session featured Erin Simmons of Matchtech, Erika Sandoval from UKG, Jerese Isaac-Emile from the City of Atlanta, Manjari Gupta of SplashBI, and Victoria Collier from The OG Group as panelists.

Each panelist brought unique perspectives, data points, and possible solutions on how data, technology, and proactive strategies can be leveraged to help organizations address pay inequities.

The consensus among the SplashBI webinar panelists was that unconscious bias in recruitment and promotions, lack of pay transparency, and insufficient monitoring of equity initiatives are the key drivers of the problem.

To hear more on the conversation, watch the full webinar recording.

Why Do Women Fall Behind in the Workplace?

There is no denying that there has been progress in gender equity in recent years. Yet, women face unique challenges in the workplace, particularly around access to information and growth opportunities. The gender pay gap does not just reflect differences in pay. It also appears in systemic barriers that prevent women from progressing in their careers.

Many organizations still do not disclose salary bands for open positions, making it difficult for women to negotiate fair compensation. Erin Simmons shared findings from a Matchtech survey of STEM candidates, stating that “84% of women said they wouldn’t apply or drop out of the interview process if there wasn’t a salary band available, or they couldn’t see any reward history from that role.” This lack of access to information disadvantages women in negotiating fair and equitable wages.

SplashBI for HR features a robust compensation dashboard that provides granular visibility into salary distribution across the organization, including the connection of compensation to gender and ethnicity. The visibility of these metrics can help the organisation be more transparent about compensation internally and externally, and also correct any potential gaps.

Negotiation of compensation remains a tricky subject, especially for women. Victoria Collier highlighted how different genders approach negotiation and the difference in resulting perception. “There’s a stat from Glassdoor and there’s a statement from Harvard Business Review, but the Glassdoor statement says that 68% of men will negotiate their salary, whereas only 45% of women will negotiate. That’s backed up by a statement from Harvard Business Review, which researched the perception of men and women when negotiating. And there’s a negativity bias in the perception of women who negotiate compared to men.”

Another easily overlooked problem that hinders women is the ‘broken rung’ phenomenon, where women struggle to secure promotions to managerial positions. These positions tend to have better pay and benefits, and women’s lack of representation in these roles can skew the pay gap significantly. Erika Sandoval highlighted this issue during the webinar, noting, “We see more men in these promotional positions, and that’s why, with this broken rung, the discussion is what positions are women coming into our organization, and what is hindering them into getting into managerial position? And that’s why the data is critical.”

SplashBI for HR helps HR teams and leaders understand gender splits across roles, specifically in leadership positions. This bird’s-eye view of gender equity across job levels helps stakeholders design systems to repair the ‘broken rung’ and give strong candidates the tools to achieve smoother career progression.

Do you have certain job groups with more men vs women and does this reflect on gender pay gaps

Do you have a good mix of Women and People Of Color in leadership

What Are the Changes That Can Narrow the Gap?

A solution that was looked at favorably by the webinar participants was targeted surveys and regular temperature checks. Jerese Isaac-Emile discussed the concept of the entrance interview and how it is important to gather data early in the employee journey, not just when they are exiting the company. “You can do an entrance interview based on different demographics, genders, and races-to gather really good data to make decisions. So, when you put people in place for those departments, they have what they need in order to build a good strategy around making their hiring process more robust and making their workforce more diverse.”

Doubling down on the importance of assessing how employees really feel, Manjari Gupta added, “The employee sentiment should always be included when we are talking about public reporting or any reports. The organization may feel that they are making changes, but does the employee working inside the organization share the same sentiment? Are their efforts actually reaching the right people?”

5 Strategies That Can Help Close the Gender Pay Gap

Regular pay audits
Transparent pay structures
Bias-free recruitment metrics
Well-defined drivers of pay and benefits
Continuous monitoring and reporting

Performance evaluations and bonuses are domains where unconscious bias against women can occur. SplashBI for HR provides detailed visualizations on bonus payouts and performance bias, allowing decision makers to evaluate contribution vs. compensation fairly.

Do provide higher performance rating based on gender

In addition to reporting, the panelists stressed the importance of holistic benefits as a key to closing the pay gap. From offer negotiation to pension and medical benefits, the gap tends to get wider over time, especially when women may take career breaks to care for children.

On average, women work 19 years longer than men to earn the same pension.

Erin Simmons explained, “On average in the UK, men have around £205,000 saved in their pension, and women have £69,000. We tend to accept the gender pay gap as just there.”

A recommendation discussed as a remedy to this problem was continuing pension contributions during maternity leave. Many women fall behind in retirement savings due to career breaks, and this gap widens over time. Victoria Collier highlighted the urgency of such policies, saying, “If we could change maternity and paternity laws so that when parents take maternity or paternity, their pension contributions continue to get paid, I think that would be a real good step forward.”

The role of legislation in driving change was an important theme during the discussion. The panelists discussed that countries like the U.K. and those in the European Union have taken the lead in mandating pay transparency and reporting requirements, but the U.S. still lags behind. They agreed that there remains a gulf between reporting and enforcement, with regulatory compliance currently viewed as an additional administrative task rather than an exercise with meaningful outcomes.

Sustaining the Momentum to Close the Gender Pay Gap

Throughout the SplashBI webinar, one message resonated clearly: without consistent action backed by reliable data, progress will remain slow and uneven. As Christina Crowley emphasized, “Many organizations publish their gender pay gap data. They’re capturing this information, they’re looking at surveys, they understand what their candidate ratios are, they understand where their pay and equities stand, but looking at it and then translating that into action — that’s two completely different things”

The panelists underscored that while many organizations are making strides, these efforts must be tracked, measured, and regularly adjusted based on real-world outcomes. People analytics tools are at the forefront of this movement. By transforming raw data into actionable insights, they provide organizations with the clarity needed to make meaningful changes.

Solutions like SplashBI for HR allow HR teams and executives to monitor progress, adjust strategies, and ensure that pay equity initiatives have the desired impact. Whether it’s through regular pay audits, tracking promotions, or ensuring equitable benefits, people analytics offer a comprehensive approach to closing the gender pay gap.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an HR metrics dashboard and why is it important?

An HR metrics dashboard visualizes key human capital data, such as turnover and absence rates, enabling HR professionals to make proactive, data-driven decisions that align workforce management with overall business strategy.

What key HR metrics should be included in a dashboard?

Key HR metrics for a dashboard include Absence Analysis, Turnover Rate, and Employee Inclusion, which provide a comprehensive view of human capital health and support strategic decision-making.

What is the difference between descriptive and diagnostic workforce analytics?

Descriptive workforce analytics focuses on what happened by summarizing past and current data (e.g., turnover rate, headcount), whereas diagnostic workforce analytics focuses on why it happened by using root-cause analysis, correlation, and drilling down into the data to identify the driving factors behind a trend.

How can organizations use reporting dashboards to promote transparency in workforce diversity management?

Reporting dashboards promote transparency in workforce diversity management by using People Analytics metrics to objectively measure and visualize diversity across gender, age, and ethnicity. This clarity helps organizations rapidly identify diversity gaps, uncover intentional or unintentional bias, and ensure compliance with regulatory mandates like pay transparency directives.

What is the "broken rung," and how does it affect the gender pay gap?

The "broken rung" is a systemic barrier at the first step up to management, where for every 100 men promoted, only 81 women are promoted. This early lag forces women to fall behind immediately, preventing them from building the "experience capital" necessary for higher earnings. This phenomenon directly fuels the gender pay gap because the deficit compounds over a woman's career, making it difficult to catch up. HR analytics can help organizations identify this specific bottleneck by tracking promotion rates by gender at the entry-level, rather than just looking at overall leadership representation.

What metrics should organizations track to measure the success of workforce diversity initiatives?

To measure the success of workforce diversity initiatives, organizations should track key People Analytics metrics such as the overall diversity ratio, employee turnover rates across demographic groups, recruitment funnel diversity, and indicators of pay equity or fair financial compensation.