Women in Revenue (WIR), a non-profit organization created to empower and elevate women in sales, marketing, revops, and customer success careers, released the results of its annual report on the challenges facing women in business today. The report, “Bridging the Salary Gap: The Paradox of Successful but Unequal,” surveyed women in revenue careers to uncover their biggest career blockers, as well as their most valued workplace benefits. The biggest challenges for women in business this year are compensation, a demand for workplace flexibility, and the need for mentorship.
Compensation was a repeated theme in the report, which found that 28 percent of women are sure they are not paid the same as their male counterparts. Perhaps more concerning, the report also found that 52 percent “have no idea,” if they are paid equally, highlighting a lack of crucial information for women to negotiate for a fair salary. This is a one-third increase over last year’s report, despite pay transparency legislation in effect in 10 states. In addition, nearly half of women cited transparent compensation information as the most important consideration when evaluating a job offer, a figure that more than doubled from 2021. Pay transparency has been cited as improving pay equity, as well as improving productivity, and low turnover rates. Roughly one in four U.S. workers live in a place with pay transparency requirements (Payscale), yet lack of information persists.
Although revenue careers are typically well-paying, compensation issues–including knowing their worth, compensation transparency, and negotiating packages–ranked as the number one challenge for women. Demographics revealed 85 percent of survey respondents make more than $100,000 per year and nearly one-third make more than $250,000.
“The women in our survey have successful, well-paying careers, but still consistently make less than their male counterparts. That’s not progress,” said Shari Johnston, founder of Women in Revenue. “Women are repeatedly told it’s their fault they make less money because they don’t ask for promotions or raises, but without the right information, they can’t know what their role and experience are worth. They can’t negotiate with facts.”
While the Great Resignation may be over for many industries and roles, women in revenue continue to search for more satisfaction, often because of pay discrepancies uncovered in job searches. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents in this year’s survey say they considered quitting their job in 2022, and 20 percent did quit their jobs. While revenue roles are a lucrative career choice for women, this data shows that companies need to make adjustments to retain them.
One change that employers can make, according to the report, is to provide women with more workplace flexibility. The top two benefits women desire would add more flexibility to their work environment. More than 80 percent of respondents rated the option to work from home as the most important benefit when considering a job offer or to stay at their current job. This figure jumped by 30 percent over prior years, likely due to return to office requirements after working at home during the pandemic. The number two ranked benefit? Flexible work hours.
Women also cited the need for mentorship as a key challenge, especially with the more virtual nature of work from home settings. Nearly 30 percent of women reported lack of training/coaching, lack of mentorship, and equal seat at the table as challenges in their organizations. These gaps can be nearly insurmountable blockers in harassment situations, as one respondent wrote in, “My direct manager is a man, my skip level manager (the person I reported) is a man, and my skip skip manager is also a man. I don’t have any female leaders to talk to.”
Top benefits women look for in a job offer:
- Option to work from home (81 percent)
- Flexible work hours (58 percent)
- Top health care (42 percent)
- Ongoing training/education (42 percent)
The report surveyed more than 400 women in revenue careers for a two month period ending in early 2023. For a deeper dive into the state of women in revenue, download the report.