Female Executive Pay Gap Widens to 25%, Biggest Gulf Since 2012

(Bloomberg) -- The gender pay gap among top executives at S&P 500 companies in the first year of the pandemic grew to its widest since 2012, fueled in part by male executives’ disproportionate gains from stock-based compensation.

In 2020, women in the c-suite earned 75% of what their male counterparts took home, a report released Wednesday by Morningstar found. That’s the widest the gap has been in nine years, and down from 88% — a high point — in 2018. 

There were slightly more women in the highest paying jobs at public companies than years prior and their salaries were about on par with men in similar roles. Yet, the bulk of executive pay comes from stock-related awards, and there, men outperformed women by 30-percentage points. Of 18 executives earning more than $50 million in 2020, only one was a woman, the report found. 

Morningstar analyzed data from annual regulatory filings from public companies of compensation for chief executive officers, chief financial officers and the next three highest paid executives. 

Women in the U.S. earn, on average, 83% of what men do, partly because they tend to hold the lowest paying jobs. At the current rate of progress, it will take another four decades for women to reach parity in the c-suite, for example, according to Morningstar.

But the group’s analysis also shows that even among the highest earners, there are gender gaps. 

Companies are under increasing pressure from shareholders to disclose gender and racial pay gaps as a potential way to create more parity. Citigroup Inc., Starbucks Corp. and Mastercard Inc. are among the few that publicly disclose how much men earn compared to women among their U.S. workforces. Companies in the U.K. have to share that information publicly for their workers based there. 

Seven U.S. states also require job postings to show a salary range so that women have a better shot at getting the same pay as men. New York City will add that requirement in May.

Overall, S&P 500 C-suite pay rose by 24% from 2012 to 2020. Men have taken home most of those gains, seeing a 27% increase compared to a 10% jump for women. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.