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Tag: gender pay gap

  • Women’s Take-Home Pay Often Drops 10 Percent During Menopause, a Study Finds

    The gender pay gap means women on average earn just 85 cents for every dollar made by men, with many cases made worse by differences in education, job type, and work experience. Now a new Stanford University study highlights another issue decimating women’s paychecks. Released in March 2025, this study found that women who seek medical care for their menopause symptoms see a 10 percent reduction in pay within the following four years. We spoke with experts—physicians specializing in hormonal health whose companies also provide innovative menopause benefits—to explore how to support women’s careers, retain top talent, and address this major pay equity issue.

    Led by Petra Persson, an economist, professor, and faculty fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), the study aimed to quantify the financial toll of entering perimenopause and menopause. The findings confirmed what many women already know: common menopause symptoms like hot flashes, brain fog, and fatigue translate directly into economic loss as women cut back on their work hours or quit altogether. 

    “For decades, social scientists have analyzed the ‘motherhood penalty,’ but until now, we haven’t known what the financial consequences are for women at the other end of the reproductive spectrum, when they enter menopause,” Persson told the Stanford Report. “We have parental leave policies, and we have policies that support workers when their productivity dips for health reasons, so it makes sense to also have policies that help women during the menopause transition,” she added, noting that 20 percent of working women have reached that life stage.

    According to The 2025 Bonafide State of Menopause Survey, menopause benefits — a combination of medical, mental health, and professional support — offset the impact of menopause and enable women to extend their careers. Though 71 percent of all women surveyed reported that they were unprepared for how disruptive menopause symptoms can be — an 8-percentage point rise since 2023 — just 12 percent of employed respondents reported that their employers offer accommodations for their symptoms.

    It’s a costly disconnect. In 2023, a Mayo Clinic study including over 4,400 employed women as subjects identified that menopause symptoms result in $1.8 billion of missed work time annually in the U.S.

    “Menopause support is not a ‘perk’ — it’s a productivity, retention, and equity strategy,” says Dr. Cristina Del Toro Badessa, a physician and hormone health specialist currently working with Artisan Beaute. “Women at midlife often hold senior, high-impact roles. Supporting them through this transition is both the right thing to do and a smart business decision that directly impacts the bottom line,” she said. 

    Because menopause’s effects and symptoms vary widely among individual women, experts recommend offering a menu of benefit options for employees.

    “When I think about what makes menopause and perimenopause benefits effective, the most important aspect is that they are comprehensive,” says Asima Ahmad, obstetrician, reproductive endocrinologist, and obesity medicine specialist. Ahmad also serves as the co-founder and chief medical officer of Carrot Fertility, she says her own company offers telemedicine consultations for hormone replacement therapy, non-hormonal treatment options, mental and emotional support, clinically supervised education, access to nutritionists, expert-led group sessions, office menopause break rooms, and access to other holistic care options. 

    A flexible, hybrid work schedule can also be a “game-changer for managing symptoms,” she says. “In our 2023 Menopause in the Workplace survey, 72 percent of respondents reported having to deal with feeling self-conscious or uncomfortable after experiencing a menopause symptom at work,” says Ahmad. “Many of these women also reported having to use the restroom for privacy during the workday or take time off of work, with the majority of respondents concealing the real reason for their time off. Providing flexible work hours or the ability to work from home means that women don’t have to take time off to manage their symptoms or feel embarrassed.”

    Though many women report “not feeling like themselves” and consider making major life changes during menopause, Ahmad emphasizes that many symptoms, like memory lapses and mood swings, are often temporary and transitional. “While these symptoms may be highly interruptive for a period of time, most women we see eventually recover,” Ahmad says, suggesting that employees shouldn’t necessarily make permanent career changes. 

    According to the Cleveland Clinic, symptoms tend to begin in one’s mid-40s during perimenopause and last for an average of seven years. 

    Ahmad adds that addressing a long-standing stigma around menopause in the workplace could help alleviate feelings of isolation. Menopause benefits send a strong message to women that they are valued in the workplace at all stages of their reproductive cycles, from fertility and pregnancy, to postpartum recovery, through the menopause transition, and beyond. 

    As for the pace of progress, the Bonafide Health survey suggests that the workplace has become more welcoming in “baby steps,” but has a long way to go. 

    “Companies that act now will be ahead of the curve,” Ahmad tells Inc.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    Lauren Gray

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  • Academic research shows UK gender gap underestimated in official data for decades

    The UK’s gender pay gap is higher than the EU and OECD average, and more than double that of France and Spain.

    A new study shows that the UK’s gender pay gap is wider than official estimates suggest—by about one percentage point—a small but significant difference.

    The Office for National Statistics (ONS) told Euronews Business that it has recently introduced a number of improvements.

    So, how much less do women in the UK earn compared to men? Why does new research suggest the ONS has been underestimating the gender pay gap for decades? And how does the UK’s gap compare with the rest of Europe?

    How much do women in the UK earn?

    According to the ONS, in April 2024, median hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees were £19.24 (€22.5) for men and £17.88 (€20.9) for women in the UK. This equates to a 7.0% gender pay gap, down from 7.5% in 2023. In other words, for every £1,000 earned by men, women earn £930.

    Among part-time employees, men earned £13.00 (€15.2) per hour compared with £13.40 (€15.6) for women. This is a -3% pay gap, meaning women earn slightly more than men.

    However, across employees of all types of contracts, the gap widens to £18.26 (€21.3) vs £15.87 (€18.5), a 13.1% pay gap, which translates to women earning £869 for every £1,000 earned by men.

    Related

    Research: Gap is wider by one percentage point

    Prof John Forth, from City St Georges, University of London and his colleagues published research in late August 2025 in the British Journal of Industrial Relations. They found that the gender pay gap in the UK “has been consistently under-estimated over the last 20 years, by a small but noteworthy margin of around one percentage point”.

    The study argues that the data used to calculate the gender pay gap fails to properly weight jobs in small, young, private-sector organisations. The researchers re-estimated the size of the UK gender pay gap by developing and applying a more representative revised weighting scheme.

    ONS: The overall impact would be small

    An ONS spokesperson told Euronews Business that this research raises some interesting questions about the best way to weight their survey data. “However it’s worth noting that, even if new methods were used, the overall impact on the gender pay gap would be small,” the spokesperson said.

    “We have recently introduced a number of improvements to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, with more planned in the coming years.”

    In the UK, median gross annual earnings for full-time employees were £37,430 (€43,697) in April 2024. Across all employees, if a man earned £37,430, a woman would earn £4,903 less based on the official gender pay gap of 13.1%. If the gap is instead taken as 14.1%, the shortfall rises to £5,278. This “small” one-percentage-point difference equates to around £375 at the median earning level.

    Related

    The gap is highest in skilled trades occupations

    The gender pay gap is highest in skilled trades occupations, while it is lowest in caring, leisure, and other service occupations.

    Occupations with a higher percentage of women tend to have lower median hourly earnings. Most jobs where women make up more than 50% of the workforce fall below £20/hour, while higher-paying roles around £30/hour have a lower proportion of women. This also indicates a gender imbalance in both representation and pay across sectors.

    UK gender pay gap exceeds EU and OECD averages

    According to OECD data, the UK ranked 8th out of 31 European countries in 2023 with a gender pay gap of 13.3%. This is higher than both the EU average of 9.4% and the OECD average of 11.3%.

    Among the five largest European economies, the gap is particularly high in Germany (14.2%) and the UK, more than double that of France (6.2%), Spain (6.2%), and Italy (4.1%).

    The highest gender pay gap is in Estonia, where women earn 24.7% less than men, while the lowest is in Luxembourg at just 0.4%.

    The UK figure differs slightly from the ONS estimate due to differences in reference periods and methodology, but the OECD dataset is used for international comparisons.

    In simple terms, a positive figure shows how much less women earn compared with men. Salary transparency is another key part of the issue.

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  • The Gender Pay Gap Is About to Widen as Companies Adopt a ‘Men First’ Work Policy Without Realizing It | Entrepreneur

    The Gender Pay Gap Is About to Widen as Companies Adopt a ‘Men First’ Work Policy Without Realizing It | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Is your organization walking back decades of progress in gender equity with a snap of its fingers? The question may sting, but the data tells an uncomfortable truth: forced Return to Office (RTO) policies may unintentionally roll back the progress we’ve made toward gender equality in the workplace.

    By scrapping the gains in flexible working environments made during the pandemic, firms are essentially establishing a “men first” hiring policy, whether they realize it or not. An inflexible RTO approach is pushing women out, which in turn fosters an environment that is even more exclusive. This exclusivity cycles back as a self-fulfilling prophecy, putting yet another layer of glass on that notorious ceiling.

    Gains on the gender pay gap: A precarious progress

    McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org recently published their Women in the Workplace report for 2023. The study spans an impressive 27,000 employees, 270 senior HR leaders, and 270 companies. We are inching toward equality, however reluctantly. Women make up 28% of the C-suite, a historical peak. But before we uncork the champagne, let’s not overlook the asterisks that accompany this headline. The journey to this milestone has been arduous, and the path ahead is fraught with stumbling blocks that threaten to undo this progress.

    Women reaching the C-suite represents a powerful narrative of hard-won battles in boardrooms, oftentimes against a backdrop of systemic obstacles. Yet, even as we celebrate the 28%, we must grapple with the glaring disparity that women of color comprise just 6% of this top-level leadership. It’s a somber footnote that screams: our work is far from done. And unfortunately, the barriers are not just confined to the boardroom — they infiltrate every level of the corporate hierarchy.

    Let’s talk about mid-tier promotions, a critical inflection point in anyone’s career, but especially for women. This is the stage where the corporate ladder starts to narrow significantly, and every rung upwards becomes exponentially more competitive. According to the report, for every 100 men promoted from entry-level to managerial positions, only 87 women achieve the same elevation. Break it down by race, and the numbers are even more bleak — 73 women of color get promoted for every 100 men.

    We can’t talk about progress without addressing microaggressions. They’re the tiny pebbles in the shoe, easily dismissed but impossible to ignore. Women are 1.5 times more likely than men to have a colleague take credit for their work and twice as likely to endure unsolicited commentary about their emotional state. Consequently, the majority of women — particularly women of color — adapt their appearance or behavior to circumvent these demeaning experiences. And guess what? Those who do are three times more likely to contemplate leaving their jobs.

    What these numbers don’t show are the invisible forces at play: the quiet sidelining of women during key project assignments, the unconscious biases coloring performance reviews, and the systemic hurdles in networking opportunities. Put bluntly, the system is rigged, and the odds are skewed heavily against women, even more so against women of color.

    Given the existing imbalances, the question becomes: can we afford to destabilize this precarious progress? Because what’s at stake isn’t just a few percentage points in a C-suite representation chart—it’s about shifting the entire cultural narrative around what leadership looks like. And more practically, it’s about leveraging the full extent of available talent in an increasingly competitive business landscape.

    Related: We’re Now Finding Out The Damaging Results of The Mandated Return to Office — And It’s Worse Than We Thought.

    Why a forced return to office is a gender issue

    And now for the gut punch: all this hard-won progress is on the brink of unraveling. Why? Because a mandatory return to office is hitting women harder.

    At first glance, bringing people back to the office seems like an equitable move — everyone, irrespective of gender, resumes the daily commute. Yet, it’s anything but. The consequences of this seemingly uniform policy are essentially hitting the rewind button on the modest gains we’ve made.

    To understand this, let’s take a look at a recent survey of over 1,000 UK CTOs and CIOs conducted by Nash Squared, which revealed a disturbing trend. Companies that mandated employees to be in the office at least four days a week had a conspicuously lower rate of hiring women — comprising just one in five new hires. Contrarily, firms that allowed more flexible work arrangements saw a 50% higher hiring rate for women. That’s a staggering difference, one that exposes the underlying biases and systemic issues at play.

    Other research shows similar findings. A Deloitte and Workplace Intelligence survey focusing on the financial sector illustrates that if leaders have caregiving responsibilities, they are 30% times more likely to exit if their remote work options are rescinded. And unfortunately, women still are much more likely to be caregivers.

    The blow to women from an inflexible return to office applies especially to high-paying, high-pressure jobs that demand workers be available at unusual times outside their contracted hours. The recent Nobel Award winner in economics, Claudia Golden, calls these “greedy jobs” and pointed out that flexibility during the pandemic allowed women to take more of these roles, helping narrow the gender pay gap. Reversal of RTO naturally reverses these gains.

    What explains such disparities? Forced RTO policies neglect the existing social inequalities and pressures disproportionately faced by women. Talking about childcare responsibilities, the flexibility to work from home helps mitigate these challenges, allowing women to integrate their professional and personal lives more effectively. With RTO, the juggling act becomes more precarious, leading many to opt out of full-time roles or sidestep promotional opportunities that demand more in-office presence.

    Moreover, women, especially women of color, often have to deal with microaggressions in the workplace, from being interrupted during meetings to having credit for their work usurped by male colleagues. The option to work from home doesn’t entirely eliminate these issues, but it does offer some level of insulation. Forced RTO means a return to these exhausting daily battles, which could lead to attrition among women who are already three times more likely to consider quitting when experiencing such microaggressions.

    Now, let’s bring it back to the data. If women make up only one in five new hires in an RTO-enforced environment, imagine the ripple effect this will have on the already dismal ratios of women in mid-tier and senior roles. And if they are 30% more likely to exit, they are much less likely to be retained.

    So, as we navigate the ever-shifting terrains of the post-pandemic workplace, it’s crucial to scrutinize the unintended consequences of our choices. Forced RTO isn’t just a logistics or productivity issue; it’s a dire gender issue with the potential to reverse years of slow but consistent progress. It’s a pivotal moment that calls for conscious decision-making, weighing the allure of returning to “business as usual” against the cost of squandering the inclusive workplaces we’ve started to build.

    That’s why I tell the clients I work with to determine their RTO policies to focus on the impact of RTO on all categories of employees, not only white males. Doing so helps inform more inclusive decisions considerate of the needs of all employees.

    The unintended consequences of RTO policies

    Let’s not kid ourselves. The thought behind a return-to-office policy often stems from a well-intended desire to reestablish workplace culture, foster team dynamics, and reclaim some sense of “normalcy.” But in achieving these objectives, are companies factoring in the regressions that might occur in other equally crucial areas, like gender equality? The balance of power is already skewed; the flexibility in work arrangements is one of the few equalizing factors we’ve managed to introduce. Strip that away, and you’re not just affecting logistics — you’re altering career trajectories.

    Enough with the doom and gloom. Here’s the wake-up call: this isn’t about appeasing any one group; it’s about ensuring that your talent pool is as rich, diverse and dynamic as it can possibly be. Make gender neutrality a cornerstone of your RTO policy. Use advanced analytics to monitor promotion rates across gender and racial lines. Equip your managers to recognize and counteract microaggressions.

    Is this hard work? Absolutely. But if we let forced RTO policies dismantle what progress we’ve made in gender equality, then we aren’t just failing our women; we are failing our organizations.

    So, are you in, or are you out?

    Gleb Tsipursky

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  • The US dollar is at a crossroads | CNN Business

    The US dollar is at a crossroads | CNN Business

    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Wall Street investors are reaching for their neck braces in preparation for yet another volatile swing in stock markets: A surging US dollar.

    The greenback — which is not just the dominant global currency but also “the key variable affecting global economic conditions,” according to the New York Federal Reserve — reached a 20-year high last year after the Fed turned hawkish with its aggressive rate hikes.

    Since then, inflation seemed to have softened, pushing the dollar down. But in recent weeks, as a slew of economic data has shown the Fed’s inflation battle is far from over, the currency soared by about 4% from its recent lows, and now sits near a seven-week high.

    Investors are stressing about this sudden rebound, since a stronger dollar means American-made products become more expensive for foreign buyers, overseas revenue decreases in value and global trade weakens.

    Multinational companies, naturally, aren’t thrilled about any of this. And around 30% of all S&P 500 companies’ revenue is earned in markets outside the US, said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial.

    What’s happening: The US dollar “finds itself at a significant crossroads yet again,” said Krosby. “While the Fed remains steadfastly data dependent, the dollar’s course as well remains focused on inflation and the Fed’s monetary response.”

    “The strong US dollar has been a headwind for international earnings and stock performance (for US investors),” wrote Wells Fargo analysts in a recent note.

    February was a rough month for markets: The Dow ended February down 4.19%, the S&P 500 fell 2.6% and the Nasdaq lost just over 1%.

    What’s next: Investors are clearly focused on the next Fed policy meeting, which is still three weeks away, for signals about the direction of rates. But until then, investors may gain some insight Tuesday when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks before the Senate Banking Committee.

    They’ll also be watching next Friday’s jobs report for any softening in the labor market that could temper the Fed’s hawkish mood.

    Don’t forget the debt ceiling: Another significant threat to the dollar is looming in Congress — the ongoing debt ceiling fight. The United States could start to default on its financial obligations over the summer or in the early fall if lawmakers don’t agree to raise the debt limit — its self-imposed borrowing limit — before then, according to a new analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

    That could potentially lead to a disastrous downgrade to America’s credit rating and could send the dollar spiraling as investors start to sell off their US assets and move their money to safer currencies.

    “It would certainly undermine the role of the dollar as a reserve currency that is used in transactions all over the world. And Americans — many people — would lose their jobs and certainly their borrowing costs would rise,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNN in January.

    ▸ A lot has changed in the last twenty years. The gender pay gap hasn’t.

    In 2022, US women on average earned about 82 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers.

    That’s a big leap from the 65 cents that women were earning in 1982. But it has barely moved from the 80 cents they were earning in 2002.

    “Higher education, a shift to higher-paying occupations and more labor market experience have helped women narrow the gender pay gap since 1982,” the Pew analysis noted. “But even as women have continued to outpace men in educational attainment, the pay gap has been stuck in a holding pattern since 2002, ranging from 80 to 85 cents to the dollar.”

    ▸ Initial jobless claims, which measures the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time last week, are due out at 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.

    This will be the last official jobs data investors see before February’s heavily anticipated unemployment report next Friday.

    Economists are expecting 195,000 Americans to have filed for unemployment, which is higher than the seasonally adjusted 192,000 who applied two weeks ago.

    Initial claims have come in lower than expected in recent weeks and remain well below their pre-pandemic levels.

    The white-hot labor market in the US added more than 500,000 jobs in January, blowing analysts’ expectations out of the water and bringing the unemployment rate to its lowest level since May of 1969.

    That’s bad news for the Federal Reserve where policymakers have been attempting to tame inflation by cooling the economy through painful interest rate hikes.

    ▸ It’s a big day for groceries. Kroger (KR), Costco (COST) and Anheuser-Busch (BUD) all report earnings on Thursday.

    Investors will be watching closely for clues about consumer sentiment during an uncertain retail earnings season. On Tuesday, Kohl’s reported that it had a rough holiday season and executives at the company put the blame on inflation. The company said higher prices squeezed sales and forced it to mark down some products to entice shoppers — which hurt its profit margin.

    Those comments echoed those of other big box retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT), who have said consumers are feeling the pinch of inflation.

    Still, Target and Walmart’s bottom lines were bolstered by food sales even as consumers pulled back on discretionary purchases.

    The US Senate voted on Wednesday to overturn a Biden administration retirement investment rule that allows managers of retirement funds to consider the impact of climate change and other ESG factors when picking investments.

    As my CNN colleagues Ali Zaslav, Clare Foran and Ted Barrett write: The rule is not mandated – it allows, but does not require, the consideration of environmental, social and governance factors in investment selection.

    Republicans complained that the rule is a “woke” policy that pushes a liberal agenda on Americans and will hurt retirees’ bottom lines.

    “This rule isn’t about saying the left or the right take on a given environmental, social, or governance issue is ‘correct,’” countered Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) on the Senate floor Wednesday. “It’s about acknowledging these factors are reasonable for asset managers to consider.”

    The measure will next go to President Joe Biden’s desk as it was passed by the House on Tuesday. The administration, however, has issued a veto threat. As a result, passage of the resolution could pave the way for Biden to issue the first veto of his presidency.

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  • The US gender pay gap: Why it hasn’t narrowed much in 20 years | CNN Business

    The US gender pay gap: Why it hasn’t narrowed much in 20 years | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A lot can change in two decades. Or… not.

    In 2022, US women on average earned about 82 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers.

    That’s a big leap from the 65 cents that women were earning in 1982. But it has barely moved from the 80 cents they were earning in 2002.

    “Higher education, a shift to higher-paying occupations and more labor market experience have helped women narrow the gender pay gap since 1982,” the Pew analysis noted. “But even as women have continued to outpace men in educational attainment, the pay gap has been stuck in a holding pattern since 2002, ranging from 80 to 85 cents to the dollar.”

    Before getting to potential reasons why the pay gap hasn’t narrowed for two decades — let alone disappeared — it’s worth noting that the top-line average doesn’t tell the whole story of what’s been going on for women in different cohorts.

    Take age: Women between the ages of 25 and 34 are much closer to achieving pay parity with men than they are likely to be when they get older.

    Since 2007, younger women have been earning about 90 cents on the dollar, according to Pew: “But even as pay parity might appear in reach for women at the start of their careers, the wage gap tends to increase as they age.”

    Having children is a factor, Pew found. For example, parenthood leads some women to put their careers on hold, or put in a shorter workweek. For employed fathers between the ages 35 and 44, having children at home is a time that often coincides with receiving higher pay even though the pay of employed mothers that same age is unaffected.

    “In 2022, mothers ages 25 to 34 earned 85% as much as fathers that age, but women without children at home earned 97% as much as fathers. In contrast, employed women ages 35 to 44 — with or without children — both earned about 80% as much as fathers,” the report said.

    Or take race and ethnicity: Pew found that Black women last year earned just 70% as much as White men. Hispanic women earned 65% as much. For White women, the gap was less, at 83%. Asian women were closest to parity, at 93%.

    “To some extent, the gender wage gap varies by race and ethnicity because of differences in education, experience, occupation and other factors that drive the gender wage gap for women overall,” the Pew analysis noted.

    “But researchers have uncovered new evidence of hiring discrimination against various racial and ethnic groups, along with discrimination against other groups, such as LGBTQ and disabled workers,” the report continued. “Discrimination in hiring may feed into differences in earnings by shutting out workers from opportunities,”

    Lastly, consider occupation: Women are still overrepresented in lower-paying occupations such as personal care and service jobs; and underrepresented in higher-paying ones, like managerial and STEM jobs.

    Regardless, the gender pay gap is typically narrowest when you pick any single occupation and control for measurable factors between men and women like education, tenure and hours worked.

    “But it never goes away,” said Rakesh Kochhar, a Pew senior researcher.

    The persistence of a gap over the past 20 years, even when comparing apples to apples, suggests there are other factors at play.

    These can include potential discrimination. When Pew asked Americans in October what factors they believed played a role in the gender wage gap, half indicated a major reason is that employers treat women differently. Women were much more likely than men (61% vs 37%) to cite this as a major reason.

    Another factor that may help explain the stickiness of the pay gap is that the wage premium for those with college degrees has grown smaller. So while more employed women (48%) now have at least a bachelor’s degree than men (41%), it is worth less.

    Individual choices such as taking periods away from the workforce to care for children also continue to play a role. Those choices may be borne of cultural norms, societal issues such as a lack of affordable child care, or personal preference.

    Narrowing the gender pay gap from here may be tough sledding.

    “More sustained progress in closing the pay gap may depend on deeper changes in societal and cultural norms and in workplace flexibility that affect how men and women balance their careers and family lives,” Pew researchers suggested.

    And even then, progress may be slower than desired, since, as they noted, “even in countries that have taken the lead in implementing family-friendly policies, such as Denmark, parenthood continues to drive a significant wedge in the earnings of men and women.”

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  • Sallie Krawcheck: ‘Women are in worse financial shape today than they were in the depths of the pandemic’

    Sallie Krawcheck: ‘Women are in worse financial shape today than they were in the depths of the pandemic’

    This summer I was at a gathering in the weeks after the Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v Wade. A senior executive from one of the country’s largest corporations was asked about his company’s reproductive rights benefits. As is befitting of his company’s size and stature, he sketched out, with some pride, its top-of-the-line health care benefits. He went on to describe how pleased–and relieved–his senior leadership team was when they confirmed that their health insurance already covered travel for medical procedures. This means that it covers travel from states that restrict reproductive rights to those that provide abortions.

    He was pleased because the travel provisions were in place, yes. He was also pleased because it meant his company did not have to take any action in those immediately post-Roe days. Instead of having to “make a statement,” they could keep their proverbial corporate head down and not risk “becoming part of the story.”

    Crisis averted. Sigh of relief.

    Except maybe not. Because sometimes remaining silent is not a bullet dodged, but rather a cost postponed.

    And the cost, in this case, can be many of the women who work for–or buy from, or invest in–your company.

    Women cannot afford to stay where they do not have support

    Ellevest recently introduced its proprietary Ellevest Women’s Financial Health Index. The index is the first-of-its-kind, quantitative measure of the financial health of women in the U.S. It includes inputs like the gender pay gap, the availability of paid family leave, inflation, and women’s representation in government and corporate leadership. Also included is a measure of reproductive rights, given that they have a fundamental financial impact on women and their families.

    This year, the index has been declining rapidly, in part due to restrictions on reproductive rights for women, as well as the increase in inflation and the tanking of consumer confidence, indicating that the financial health of women in the U.S. has also been heading south. In fact, by the index’s measure, women are in worse financial shape today than they were in the depths of the pandemic.

    We also shared the results of our second annual Ellevest Financial Wellness Survey. It is perhaps not surprising that this survey showed that more than half of women–and more than 60% of millennial and Gen Z women–said that the overturning of Roe v. Wade has had a significant impact on their mental health.

    But make no mistake: They are also making the connection to their pocketbooks. Millennial women rank the restriction of reproductive rights as one of their top five financial worries. For Gen Z women, it featured in second place behind inflation–interestingly, though perhaps not surprisingly, a tie with climate change. And lest you write this off as youthful “wokeness,” climate change was a top-five financial worry for women across all age demographics.

    There are three main takeaways for corporate executives:

    Silence can cost you women employees

    Women report that they want to work at companies whose values align with theirs: Some 44% of women say they would look to leave an employer whose views on reproductive rights do not align with their own. That also goes for 56% of millennial women, 53% of Latinas, and 45% of Black women.

    So how are women reacting to this rapidly shifting landscape? Well, they’re sending their resumes out. That’s right: A full 55% are looking for a new job. And 38% report that they are saving money so they can leave their job.

    This could hurt.

    Silence can also cost you women customers

    But the economic cost of your company’s silence may not stop there. It can hit the revenue line: 59% of women–and two-thirds of younger women–say it’s important for them to invest and spend with companies that stand for reproductive rights. In other words, they may in fact want you to “become part of the story.”

    That could hurt even more.

    Companies are focusing on men’s top financial priority

    A final insight for corporate leaders, from the survey: The Ellevest survey revealed that men’s top financial priority is growing their retirement savings. Fair enough. And here your corporate benefit plans–with their heavy emphasis on 401(k)s–tend to be on target.

    Women’s top financial priority? “Supporting my family.” And understandably so, given that our society expects women to shoulder a disproportionate share of the family care responsibilities. This feels particularly acute, coming out of a pandemic in which women were the social safety net, and given ongoing economic uncertainty.

    Corporate benefits plans are supposed to help… well, not so much. Only 5% of the country’s lowest paid workers, most of whom are women of color, had access to paid parental leave in 2020. And even among the nation’s top 10% of earners, it’s only 36%. Not to mention flexible work policies, child, and family care support, and so on. It’s another version of silence on an issue that matters to every woman–in this case, her primary financial priority.

    So, corporate executives: Just as your women employees and customers may misinterpret your silence, don’t let her current silence lull you.

    Sallie Krawcheck is the CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, the wealthtech company built by women, for women. Previously, she led Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, and Citi Private as CEO and was CFO of Citi.

    The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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    Sallie Krawcheck

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