Even after retirement, signs of the pay gap still exist.
A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Center for Effective Government outlined the differences between the retirement funds of male CEOs and female CEOs, according to The Washington Post.
If you add up the 10 largest retirement accounts owned by white male CEOs, the total is $1.4 billion. Meanwhile, the same total for white female CEOs is only $277 million. The total is even worse for the 10 largest retirement accounts of all minority CEOs, including males and females: $196 million.
It may seem the findings can be attributed to length of tenure, but this isn't so. On average, the tenure for the 10 men with the biggest retirement funds was 22 years. The average tenure was 26 years for the women and 24 years for the CEOs of color.
Study co-author Scott Klinger, who's also the director of revenue and spending policies at the Center for Effective Government, attributed the difference in retirement funds to various other reasons. Perhaps the men got higher levels of equity, or the women and minority CEOs didn't put as much away in their retirement funds.
But the most probable reason is one of the most common problems: the pay gap.
"We think probably the differences are the disparities in pay over the long course of their careers," said Mr. Klinger. "If you have more pay, you're likely to defer more."
Though the pay gap is valid at every level, it only widens as time goes on. A recent Bloomberg report found female business school graduates begin their careers making $98,000, whereas recent male graduates make $105,000. Five to seven years later, the average female salary is $140,000 and the average male salary is $175,000.
Mr. Klinger summed it up well: "The thing that plagues women at all levels is also an issue for people in the corner office," he said.