Stepstone analysis: Women already face (salary) disadvantages entering their first job

• Stepstone Salary Report 2024: Adjusted gender pay gap in Germany at 5.5 percent
• Salary gap increases further after starting a career
• Men and women are equally successful in salary negotiations, but women feel much less comfortable doing so

Düsseldorf, 01.03.2024. Even with the same education and previous experience, women in Germany begin their careers at a significant salary disadvantage. According to an analysis of the Stepstone Salary Report, men earn a gross median salary of 40,250 euros in their first three years in a full-time job, while women only achieve 37,500 euros. The adjusted gender pay gap - i.e. the pay gap after structural differences have been factored out - is 4.8 percent in the early career phase (unadjusted 6.9 percent).

On the occasion of Equal Pay Day 2024 on March 6th the Stepstone Salary Report 2024 highlights the gender pay gap. The pay gap between male and female employees continues to widen - and the salary differences continue to increase with growing professional experience. The gender pay gap for full-time employees is 12.4 percent. Adjusted, the gender pay gap stands at 5.5 percent.

"It is an unacceptable situation that we still have gender pay gaps in the 21st century. We are therefore committed to salary transparency in job advertisements in order to make the job market fairer and close the gender pay gap," says Dr. Tobias Zimmermann, labor market expert at The Stepstone Group. The Stepstone Salary Planner, for example, provides guidance on your own market value with precise salary forecasts.

Salary negotiation: women equally successful as men
Although men and women are almost equally successful in asking for a raise, women feel much less comfortable negotiating for more money, according to a Stepstone salary survey. The difference is almost 20 percentage points. At the same time, women are more willing to talk about their salary and, at 90 percent, are significantly more in favor of salary transparency in Germany (8 percentage points difference compared to men).

"In times of labor shortages, we need maximally efficient recruiting processes. Jobs are now open for almost three times as long as they were in the early 2010s. Transparent salaries and salary ranges make people capable of making decisions at the start of their careers and thus ensure application processes that don't fail due to salary. This benefits both candidates and employers," says Tobias Zimmermann.

Adjusted gender pay gap in entry-level positions: up to 7.9 percent pay gap depending on occupational group
A look at the adjusted gender pay gap also reveals major differences within occupational groups with less than 3 years of professional experience. At the start of the career, the highest adjusted gender pay gap is found in the trades (7.9 percent), wholesale and retail (7 percent) and distribution and sales (7 percent) occupational groups. The smallest pay gap is found in the HR (0.7 percent), marketing & PR (2.6 percent) and catering & hospitality (2.6 percent) occupational groups.

Regardless of professional experience, the pay gap is highest in the wholesale and retail (10.1 percent), trades (9.4 percent) and sales and distribution (7.9 percent) occupational groups, while it is lowest in the HR (1.2 percent), logistics (3.9 percent) and marketing & PR (4.1 percent) occupational groups.

Gender Pay Gap
The stated gender pay gap describes the unadjusted pay gap, which mixes in many other parameters relevant to pay, such as professional experience and educational background. The unadjusted value compares all male salaries against all female salaries. It represents the difference in annual salary between men and women expressed as a percentage of the male annual salary.

However, many of the differences between men’s and women’s salary are due to other factors (such as age, sector, occupational group, education, professional experience, company size, federal state and city, and staff responsibility). Once these factors are taken into account, we get the adjusted gender pay gap. This can be understood as the salary difference between two people who are identical in every respect apart from gender.

About the Stepstone salary planner

In addition to the annual Stepstone Salary Report, the online job site Stepstone offers other salary related services. These include the Stepstone Salary Planner, for which job experts and market researchers have developed an algorithm that provides a very accurate forecast of personal salary levels based on the most important salary drivers (e.g. industry, job, experience). More information: www.stepstone.de/gehaltsplaner

About the Stepstone Salary Report 2024

The Stepstone Salary Report 2024 is drawn from one of the largest salary databases in Germany with salary information by location and region, occupational group, industry, professional experience and much more. The Salary Report 2024 is representative of the working population at national and state level according to the criteria of age, gender, university degree and economic sector. The salary figures are not directly comparable with those from previous years. This results from changes in the evaluation methodology and the composition of the sample.

About the Stepstone survey on salaries and salary transparency 2023/2024
How satisfied are employees in Germany with their salary? Can they assess their market value? And how transparent are they about their salary? In November 2023, Stepstone surveyed around 5,700 employees in Germany, including around 1,200 managers and around 750 recruiters, on these and other topics. The survey is representative of the German working population by age, gender and education.