The Gap in HR Pay - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Despite outnumbering men by 2.3 to 1 in corporate human resources management, women earn significantly less than their male counterparts. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 2007 median weekly pay for female HR managers in 2007 was $1,048, while the men made $1,583.

• The highest earner among HR managers was Jon D. Walton of Allegheny Technologies in Pittsburgh, at $9.9 million, with a base salary of $413,733.

• The highest-paid woman was Marina Armstrong of Gymboree Corp. in San Francisco, at $7.5 million, with a base salary of $384.327.

• The executive compensation research firm Equilar found that women made up only 26% of the highest-paid HR executives at Russell 3000 firms in fiscal 2007. Their median total compensation was $1.78 million, compared with $2.23 million for the men.

• Equilar noted that many of the male HR managers had higher-level degrees and a broader range of corporate roles than their female counterparts. “Their hybrid roles probably have a significant impact on their compensation, as they … manage several elements of each company,” Alexander Cwirko-Godycki wrote in the Equilar report.

• Salary.com, whose own survey found that only four of the top 30 HR earners were women, attributes some of the inequity to age and education, saying men tend to have more experience and academic credentials.

• Bill Coleman of Salary.com said the inequity would narrow as more-educated women spend more years in the profession, closing the experience gap.

• But how HR managers are selected is detrimental to eliminating the shortfall, as hiring from outside a company tends to result in higher pay than internal promotions. Women tend to be promoted from within, while men “have more tolerance for risk” and will move from job to job, said Liz Spada, vice president of DolmatConnell & Partners, a compensation consulting firm. And outside hires tend to make more money.

The Equilar list of the highest-paid HR managers, based on company proxy reports

Human Resource Executive Online’s summary of research on the pay gap