Workplace advocates can help close wage gap, especially for women of color

In an ideal world, men and women would be paid fairly as a matter of fact. But in reality, women in many industries are paid less than men. And one possible solution, unfortunately, stems from the same biases that contribute to the discrepancy.

According to a recent PayScale report, while it helps a person’s career a great deal to have a mentor, having a sponsor can be more financially beneficial. In particular, a white male sponsor.

While mentors “give advice while sponsors actively seek to provide opportunities,” according to Payscale, sponsors advocate on behalf of “people like themselves.” Because of this, women—in particular, women of color—get left behind when it comes to pay.

Related: How much does discrimination explain the gender pay gap?

Employees with sponsors are paid an average of 11.6 percent more than those who lack them, while men with sponsors make 12.3 percent more than women with sponsors (at 10.2 percent).

Then there’s the issue of having a female sponsor, which means the employee is going to make less than if the sponsor were male. According to the report, females with female sponsors make 14.6 percent less than females who have male sponsors, while males with female sponsors make 8.7 percent less than males who have male sponsors.

But the problem is bigger than gender, since even having a sponsor who looks like them doesn’t help women of color as much as having a white sponsor. Black women with black sponsors make 11.3 percent less than black women with white sponsors, while Hispanic women with Hispanic sponsors make 15.5 percent less than Hispanic women with white sponsors.

And black and Hispanic women are least likely to have sponsors at all, with only 55 percent of black and Hispanic women saying they have an advocate at work, while overall at least 60 percent of employees say they have an advocate. Among white men, on the other hand, 62.5 percent say they have an advocate at work.

Because of unconscious bias, the fact that most businesses have white male leadership perpetuates the situation, says PayScale director Wendy Brown. “Sponsorship programs can be an important component of landing higher-paying management jobs, so it’s critical for companies to have a formalized plan to ensure women of color have equal access to sponsors who will advocate for them when decisions are being made about career advancement and pay raises.”

That means that white male leaders should be looking for opportunities to sponsor people who don’t look like them, she adds.

Not only is it necessary to change the current structure, the current uproar about racism is also visible in the workplace when it comes to sponsors. The report cites a Harvard Business Review study that shows that “when minorities advocate for fellow minorities, they are often either dismissed or categorized as ‘racist’ for advocating for people of color who look like them.”

The report also points out that black women’s choice of another black women as advocates,  to act as their advocates, but research shows that this approach may not lead to career advancement—a result that, in the technology sector, has caused many women to leave the industry all together.”

Read more: 

• Wanted: Female financial advisors to shrink industry gender gap
• Who’s responsible for putting an end to the gender pay gap?
• Gender pay gap stems from lack of access to high-paying jobs