Entrepreneurship and the Gender Pay Gap: Do Male and Female Business Owners Earn Equally? - Career News | PayScale

Marissa Brassfield, PayScale
Oct 25, 2012

Research on wages in the U.S. reveals that women in traditional office jobs earn about 76 cents to every dollar earned by men, but how about entrepreneurs? The latest insights from the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor reveal a surprising statistic on the salaries female business owners pay themselves.

You might think that women-owned businesses would help close the gender pay gap, but female CEOs pay themselves the same 76 cents on the dollar compared to what male CEOs pay themselves. "Across the board, there's a tendency for female entrepreneurs to pay themselves last," said Julie Weeks, the president and CEO of Womenable, to Forbes. "Any extra revenue is generally used to pay employees, bring on new hires or reinvest in the company."

Want more bad news, ladies? Female entrepreneurs pay themselves a salary just 41 percent of the time, whereas male entrepreneurs pay themselves 53 percent of the time. What do you think it will take for women business owners to have more of a "me first" attitude when it comes to pay?

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