Equal Pay Day highlights ground lost for women

April 10, Equal Pay Day — the day dedicated to raising awareness of the gender pay gap that symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year—is a reminder of just how far women haven’t come.

Not only does the World Economic Forum say that it will take another 217 years for women to achieve pay parity, but a CareerBuilder survey reveals that men aren’t even as likely as women to believe there’s an issue with pay—and women don’t expect to reach as high levels at their place of work as their male colleagues do.

Oh, and that’s not all. People analytics and planning firm Visier’s ongoing study of gender equity finds that younger women are actually losing ground in the fight for equal pay. Not only are large U.S. employers not making collective progress towards closing the gender pay gap, but in 2017 women under age 40 earned an average of 79 cents for each dollar earned by men, compared to an average of 81 cents per dollar in 2015. Women over age 40 earned 72 cents per dollar in 2015 and 73 cents per dollar in 2017—not exactly stirring progress, either.

At that rate, women will have an even tougher time catching up on retirement savings, particularly since they also have to face savings challenges that men don’t. They need to prepare for a longer retirement, thanks to a longer lifespan; they have to try to save even more extra money, since that longer lifespan likely means they’ll be facing longer periods of ill health and need to spend more for medical care. They also put other financial needs first, before saving for retirement, likely because they have no choice.

Then there’s the need to try to catch up on pay gaps caused by absence from the workplace to care for children or elderly relatives; and the difficulty of getting access to a retirement savings plan to begin with—since so many women work part time or in industries or employers who do not provide them with a means to save for retirement at work—to name just a few.

CareerBuilder’s survey revealed that while 32 percent of women do not think they are making the same pay as men in their organization who have similar experience and qualifications, only 12 percent of men think so. In an age of #METOO, when men seem to have a tough time believing that sexual assault and harassment are as common as has been revealed by the myriad of women’s stories, it seems that there’s yet another blind spot that needs to be tackled between the sexes.

And then there’s that whole promotion thing. While 29 percent of men think they will reach a director level or higher, compared to 22 percent of women, 25 percent of women never expect to move higher than entry level, compared with 9 percent of men. And 31 percent of women think they’ve hit a glass ceiling within their organization.

Not only do women not expect to advance, they also don’t expect increased remuneration. More than a third—35 percent—of women don’t expect to achieve a salary over $50,000 during their career; just 17 percent of men have such limited expectations. And close to half of men—47 percent—expect to reach a six-figure salary, compared with just 22 percent of women.

Not surprisingly, in light of all this, women are also less satisfied with opportunities for advancement at work. Just 34 percent of women are satisfied with career advancement opportunities at their current employer, compared with 44 percent of men, and 30 percent of women believe they lack the same career advancement opportunities as men who have the same skills and qualifications at their organization. Only 12 percent of men believe that. Women are also less likely to be satisfied with training and learning opportunities at their employer than men (43 percent, compared with 55 percent).

Employers, for their part, buy into pay equity with lip service, but not so much with action. The survey finds that 94 percent say there should be pay equity, but 15 percent of employers say they don’t believe female workers actually do make the same wage as male counterparts at their organization. In addition, while half of HR managers think that female workers make the same wage as their male counterparts at their organization, 35 percent said they would hope they do.

Employers are also not as supportive—even vocally—of making pay transparent in the U.S. Only 82 percent said it should be, while just 42 percent said that proposed legislation prohibiting employers from asking job candidates for their salary history will help close the gender pay gap, since salary histories cannot be discussed.