Bloomberg had an excellent article about compensation for men and women leaders who work at companies on the S&P 500 list. They found that women executives were paid much less than their male counterparts.

Last year, of the five best-paid executives at each of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies, 198 were women, or 8 percent of the total. Those high-achievers on average earned $5.3 million, 18 percent less than men, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Really good research and a well-done article.

I would love to see more research about why this is the case. Overall, childless women and men earn about the same amount of money. The big discrepancies in pay come into play when women have children. They are much more likely to take time off and take advantage of flex time and are screwed over for that. Terribly annoying. Here, women! Take advantage of family-friendly policies. Aren’t we a great company? But expect a huge dock in pay and be prepared to be the first to go, if there are company layoffs! 

However, women who make it to the top echelon of business are the lean-in types, who don’t take time off or use flex time. So, that wouldn’t explain the difference in pay.

There are three other explanations: 1) plain old sexism, 2) women don’t advocate for themselves, 3)these women are a lot younger than their male counterparts and haven’t had enough years of promotions.

What explanation do you choose?

(I really, really wish that I had more time to write something longer and more thoughtful on this topic. But the driving schedule is kicking my ass right now.)