Photo credit: https://kellyewhitney.files.wordpress.com

We already know the gender wage gap is here, and is much more complex than we’d ever imagined. And apparently, it won’t close for another 43 years…Unfortunately, performance-based pay is also subjected to the much-dreaded gender bias. Back in 2009, Bank of America was the target of a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination against female brokers who received lower retention bonuses. More recently, cases like Silicon Valley’s Ellen Pao’s, have reminded us of the unfair biases and practices that happen at all levels of management.

A 2013 study by UK-based Chartered Management Institute finds the gender bias in salaries is being aggravated by bonus to male managers being 50% higher than that of female managers. The disparity between these is unfortunately striking, and very real. And given the nature of bonuses, they’re also very hard to discuss or remediate for obvious confidentiality and subjectivity reasons.

A “pay-by-committee” solution, whereby executives are evaluated strictly in terms of performance and results, has shown women CEOs on boards of FTSE350 companies to clearly outperform their male counterparts, according to a survey by the University of Southampton.

Why then don’t more companies adopt this, or a similar system, to award bonuses strictly on the basis of performance and results generated?

The Corporate Sis.